Chapter 4

I Once Knew A Lady Who Loved Life So Much

This lady was a great lady. She was a mother of 8 children. One child died at an early age. So she raised 7 children almost on her own. When times got tough. And believe me at times it got extremly tough. She always kept the 7 children together and never separated them or gave them up for adoption.

This lady would milk the cows so the kids would have some milk to drink. She would also trade some milk with the neighbor down the street for some eggs. So the kids would have a good meal to eat.

She loved working in her garden picking vegitables so the kids would have a well balanced diet. And she never complained much about anything. Why? Because she always said, *What good would it do.*

I seen her one time cooking up a big pot of deans. And gave all the kids their share. And then she started washing out the pot. I ask her are you going to eat? And she replied, I am not hungry. I did not know what happened at the time, because I was just a little boy. But what happened was there was none left for her to eat. Wow this makes me cry and breaks my heart to this day...

This lady loved life. She loved her small farm. And the kids worked very hard to help her feed and water the animals on the farm. The water for the animals had to be carried up a steep creek bank in 5 gallon buckets about a quarter of a mile away from the house. The kids also had to cut johnson grass along the side of the road to feed the rabbets, sheep and cows.

Sure these kids had to work hard. But all farm hands work hard. Yes, they do ask any farmer.

This lady was not perfect either, she made many of mistakes in her life. But who has not made mistakes in their life. We are all guilty of this. I know I am... I feel I am the worst at making mistakes...

This woman that I am talking about is my Mother Cecile. The Greatest LADY I have ever met in my life of 55 years on this earth.

My dads name is Harry. My 4 sisters names are Vickie, Doris, Diane and Susan. My 3 brothers names are David, James and William. William was the one who past away at a very very young age. I miss you little brother. I was blessed with 3 awesome sons. Their names are John Jr, Scott and Wayland. And I am so proud of them they are great young men.

And I have been blessed with very loving and caring wife and her name is Pat. I love you babe...

Soon my mother became very ill and my oldest sister Vickie took Mom into her home and took very good care of her until she past away in 1997.

The hardest thing for me to get over and it still haunts me like a nightmare to this day and that is.

When I went to visit my mother at my sisters home a few months before Mom past away. I was watching my dear Mother taring kleen ex in half to make them last until she got her next Social Security check in the mail next month.

It was not because none of us kids would not have given her our last dime or buy her more kleen ex. The point is. This LADY loved life. She always worked hard. I remember when she went to work with broken ribs. Oh how sad that leaves me and heart sicken to this day.

But she died struggling all the way to the end of her life. Trying to make ends meet, until she got her next check. Yes, she worked hard all her life and died broke as the day she was born. And her only crime was, she was born. Seems so unfair...

I love you Mama and Daddy. And this e book is deticated to you and dad. What a fine Mother and Dad you all was. I miss both of you so much. Rest in Peace. Jesus loves you two, and so do all us kids.

I miss you two like the desert misses the rain...