Memories of Mom

My mother has been gone for twenty six years and I still miss her and think of her when Mother's Day comes around. She was a very special lady who was warm, smart, hard working and had a lot of common sense. She'd go out of her way to make people feel at ease, something rare back when racism and class seperations were part of everyday life more so than they are now. She was always baking pies and cookies and taking them to neighbors. Back then people just decided to go visiting and we'd all pack into the station wagon and head out. Dad was always working on something so most of the time it was just mom and us kids. We might drop in on two or three neighbors through the course of the afternoon, and we would play with their kids while the grownups talked. Or our neighbors would come to visit us, which was always exciting because we could hear a car coming down our long lane and we kids would all crowd at the window to see who it was. Of course mom always had a pie or cookies ready for whoever stopped by... I've lived in my house here in town for twenty one years and barely talk to my neighbors, let alone visit them. Times and people have sure changed.
Having nine children kept mom busy, and to this day I have no idea how she did everything. There was laundry almost everyday, meals to fix, cows to milk, gardens to plant and tend... and she still found time to watch her soaps everyday. I'll always remember Sundays when the family almost always got together and mom was the hub of the entire family on those days. I guess we never realized how much so until she passed away. Sundays at our house weren't the same after that.
There are so many wonderful memories I have of my mother, but the main thing I remember is the way I always felt around her... Loved