My mother

I was talking to my mom about what to name my blog and she said "Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone." My mom, Anna Belle, is not big on being sorry for yourself. Everytime I get down she says to look at my blessings. You have a beautiful home don't you. Yes momma. You can walk a little bit can't you. Yes momma. You are not in a ditch somewhere with nothing to eat are you. No momma. She will not allow me to throw a pity party and her be an attendant. I know she is right. My life such as it is could be alot worse. I have alot of health problems but they could always be worse. When we go to church or anywhere for that matter and someone asks her how she is she always says I'm fine or I'm better than I have a right to be. Oh, by the way the comments above are actually what she says. Yes, she says you are not in a ditch somewhere. She has alot of colorful sayings and I will probably share more with you along the way. She is alot older than most parents of 34 yr olds. She is 73 and she is a character. She grew up in a mining community until her parents saved enough to build a house on my grandmother's property. She lived in a block house until she was 17 and then she moved to Michigan to live with my aunt and work in a candy factory. She has often told us of how she would make the big suckers that swirl around. She said she had to swirl them into a circle, cut the end off, and then put the stick in the bottom. She has lots of stories from where she has worked in her life. She actually worked until she was 6 months pregnant with me. She left Michigan to take care of my uncle Bill's children. That's how she met my dad. His mother was neighbors with my aunt and uncle. She has had an eventful and colorful life. Married at 18, 1st child at 19, second at 24, 3rd at 39, 4th at 40, and last but not least at 42 her 5th baby, all girls. She has always been a caretaker. She took care of my grandmother, my uncle Chalk, and my dad was chairman of the deacon board at church and she felt it was her responsibility to take care of everyone at church. She tried to make sure everyone had food, clothes, and a way to church. She has been present at more than 14 homebirths and helped each woman with cleaning the house, making a meal, etc. When I was small and people she knew passed away she would always show up at their house with a meal and would clean their house or do anything she could to make this time easier for them. After my dad died, when she was just 48, she slowed down alot. She didn't feel it was her place to do like she did before so she stepped back so the deacons' wives at church would step up and carry on her tradition. I think of her alot when our current chairman of the deaconboard's wife does the things my mom used to do. Momma often bemoans the fact that she is not able to do for people like she used to. She has osteoporosis and degenerative spine disorder as well as osteoarthritis and other ailments and that slows her down alot. She still will come to my house weekly and sweep or do things I am not able to do. I guess you could say that over the past few years she has become my best friend.