Like a knee-jerk reaction, memories of childhood have been on my mind this week after Mother's Day. Though the memorial day has come and gone, my Mom's still here, and I'm here, so I can tell you what she means to me.
More specifically, thoughts and early memories of her have been floating around my head like the clouds drifting along the sky. My Mamma looked strikingly like Loretta Lynn in her younger years. That's not just the memory of a small child's adoration either, because most folks said she did. These two pictures below are us. The first is Mamma after she was already a Grandmother, and that's Travis, my 20 year old giant, in her arms she's dancing with. She was a nurse's aide in a nursing home many of her working years. The second photo is, from left to right, my sisters Tammy & Angie, and me on top of the trunk of an old car my step-dad drove. He loved cars. And, Angie and Tammy loved animals. I loved the two of them.
More specifically, thoughts and early memories of her have been floating around my head like the clouds drifting along the sky. My Mamma looked strikingly like Loretta Lynn in her younger years. That's not just the memory of a small child's adoration either, because most folks said she did. These two pictures below are us. The first is Mamma after she was already a Grandmother, and that's Travis, my 20 year old giant, in her arms she's dancing with. She was a nurse's aide in a nursing home many of her working years. The second photo is, from left to right, my sisters Tammy & Angie, and me on top of the trunk of an old car my step-dad drove. He loved cars. And, Angie and Tammy loved animals. I loved the two of them.
 Click to enlarge: My Mamma & My son Travis |  Click to enlarge: My sisters Tammy, Angie, & I |
I've told my Mamma's story before, so I won't tell it all again, but she lived with an aunt & uncle until she was 12 years old, and she thought they were her parents. Her Uncle Frank worked in the mines, and she loved him and her Aunt Juanita dearly. So, when Juanita died, and she had to go live with her Mom and step dad, it was a double loss, the loss of her parents, and the loss of the only life she had ever known.
She grew up in the mountains around Copperhill, Tennessee. The way of life was very different around the mines. But, as a young mother years later, her life back then had made an impression on her. She loved to hear and sing Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette songs, and Mamma sang to me.
She grew up in the mountains around Copperhill, Tennessee. The way of life was very different around the mines. But, as a young mother years later, her life back then had made an impression on her. She loved to hear and sing Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette songs, and Mamma sang to me.
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Sometimes, I watched her face while she sang these songs, and other times she lay on the bed with us and I faced the wall and listened to her sing behind me, with her arms around my waist, so I couldn't see my sisters wiggling around, and I could just hear her and imagine it all in my head. I loved those moments.
My Mamma loved Elvis Presley. He died when I was 13. I can remember her turning the tv up, and everybody had to get quiet when one of his movies would come on tv. My mamma was the type to cry over movies too, like me. But I've always tried to smother my tears, bashful about it, and all. Not Mamma. She would just squawl with the tears rolling down her face. She was like that with the soap operas, too. As a funny note, I remember once a woman was dying, and you know how long it takes somebody to actually stop breathing on the soaps...sometimes days. Well, the woman finally died. Mamma was crying her eyes out, and suddenly the tv went to a commercial and it was the dead woman from the soap selling something in a commercial. I laughed until I thought I would die at Mamma's reaction, because it had seemed so real to her, and you know actors are just actors.
My Mamma loved Elvis Presley. He died when I was 13. I can remember her turning the tv up, and everybody had to get quiet when one of his movies would come on tv. My mamma was the type to cry over movies too, like me. But I've always tried to smother my tears, bashful about it, and all. Not Mamma. She would just squawl with the tears rolling down her face. She was like that with the soap operas, too. As a funny note, I remember once a woman was dying, and you know how long it takes somebody to actually stop breathing on the soaps...sometimes days. Well, the woman finally died. Mamma was crying her eyes out, and suddenly the tv went to a commercial and it was the dead woman from the soap selling something in a commercial. I laughed until I thought I would die at Mamma's reaction, because it had seemed so real to her, and you know actors are just actors.
But, Mamma was real. She was herself. And, nobody can ever forget their Mamma, no matter how many years come and go. When I sing the songs she sang, it's as if I'm hearing her sing them. Sometimes when I'm sleeping, my Mamma still sings to me in my dreams.
