{"id":5393,"date":"2020-05-10T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-10T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/?p=5393"},"modified":"2020-04-19T15:40:34","modified_gmt":"2020-04-19T20:40:34","slug":"i-remember-mama-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=5393","title":{"rendered":"I Remember Mama – Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Journal of Joy: Things that make my heart smile\u2026<\/em>..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Memories of\nmy mother always fill me with joy. She\u2019s been gone for 48 years, but I can\nstill see her face and feel her guiding hand in my life. I think sharing\nstories about loved ones who have passed away brings them honor. Here are some\nmore things I remember about my mama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember her fearlessness:<\/strong> When I was 4 or 5\nwe lived in a brownstone \u201crooms for rent\u201d building in St. Louis. The woman who\nlived upstairs had a young boy about my age. She would stay out until all\nhours, leaving her child alone, unattended. Once, she left him there ill. In\nthose days, there were no agencies to call in such situations and the police\ncouldn\u2019t do anything because it wasn\u2019t illegal. Mom went upstairs and looked\nafter him. She also let others know she\u2019d like to give this gal a piece of her\nmind, among other things. The next day, my dad, Mom, and I were headed out. I\u2019m\nnot sure where we were going, but we were all dressed up. I know this because Mom\nhad a hat on. Hats were very fashionable in those days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\nwere standing in the hallway when Miss Out All Night came shimmying down the\nstairs. \u201cI hear you\u2019re looking for me,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mom\nsaid, \u201cWell, yes I am.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nwas obvious the lady was looking for a fight. Mom tried to talk her out of it\nbut she wouldn\u2019t listen, so Mom took off her hat, handed it and her purse to Dad\nto hold while she proceeded to have a little hand-to-hand combat. I could tell\nthe woman was still conscious as she lay there on the floor. Mom dusted herself\noff, straighten her hair slightly, put her hat back on, took her purse from Dad,\nand off we went for the day. When we returned, the lady and her son had moved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember her humor:<\/strong> Mom was a cross\nbetween Erma Bombeck and Dave Barry, witty and funny. Once at K-Mart, Mom\naccidentally bumped her shopping cart into another woman\u2019s. Mom jokingly said,\n\u201cSorry, you almost need a driver\u2019s license to operate one of these things.\u201d The\nwoman was indignant as she replied, \u201cWell, I don\u2019t!\u201d Then the woman turned her\ncart quickly around and ran into a post. Mom just passed her up, smiled, and\nreplied, \u201cSee what I mean!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember her encouragement:<\/strong> \u201cYou can do it,\u201d\nshe\u2019d say. \u201cYou can be whatever you want to be. You can do whatever you want to\ndo.\u201d It may not seem like a big thing now, but Mom always wanted a high school\ndiploma. I remember with pride when she got her GED. She was in her mid-30s.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember when she came to Christ:<\/strong> Mom wasn\u2019t quite\nas feisty after she met the Lord. She never lost her wit, wisdom, or humor, but\nshe gained peace and deeper insight. When she looked at a flower, she saw the\nCreator. When she looked at snow, she saw a miracle. When she lived life, she\nsaw purpose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember her death:<\/strong> I was in my early\n20s when Mama died. She went to the doctor for what she thought was a kidney\ninfection; she found out she had uterine cancer. Two weeks later she was gone. She\nwas 48. It happened so fast and now that I\u2019m older, I realize how young she\nwas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pope\nPaul VI said, \u201cEvery mother is like Moses. She does not enter the Promised\nLand. She prepares a world she will not see.\u201d These words ring true in my\nmother\u2019s case. There is much of her family\u2019s life she did not live to see. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And because\nher death came quickly, there is much I didn\u2019t get to tell her. So, \u201cMom, if\nyou\u2019re listening, I want you to know \u2013 I remember you! Thanks for giving me so\nmany wonderful things to remember.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*****<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lord, You give and You take away. Thank\nYou for giving me my mom. I\u2019ve always been a little sad that she never got to\nsee her amazing grandchildren, but I think a little of her lives on in them. Sharing\nstories with them about her leaves a legacy. What a wise, wonderful, and\ncolorful person she was! All the praise and glory for that goes to You!  <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Journal of Joy: Things that make my heart smile\u2026.. Memories of my mother always fill me with joy. She\u2019s been gone for 48 years, but I can still see her face and feel her guiding hand in my life. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5393\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}