Today's post comes from my mother, Bonnie Ormsbee Fallon.
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It is kind of difficult to put into words and keep it condensed into a few paragraphs what was so important to me about my Mom. I have had the honor of being able to spend some real quality time with Mom on a one to one basis. You know your parents as a child, then get to know them as an adult with your own children, and then I had the privilege of knowing Mom as she regressed into her second childhood. I was able to do for her all the small and large things she did for me when I was a child.
Mom taught me first and foremost how to be a good wife, homemaker, mother, and sibling. She taught me by example, not by brow beating me, how to love God with a pure heart and to live my life in total faith. I would be the first one to admit that I fell short of her example. I regret that but, I still have time to try and live up to all that she taught me.
Every time I take out a cookie sheet or a bowl to bake with I can see Mom patiently teaching me to measure, stir, sift, and crack an egg. I remember canning at her elbow, and picking berries. Oh my goodness, we couldn't leave the berry field until our buckets were full! I can see her right with us in the garden picking rock!
She taught me how to be frugal and how not to be wasteful. We didn't have much growing up but, we never knew it. We always had a clean home that was warm and filled with love and lots of people. Mommy never knew when Dad would show up with an extra dinner guest in tow. Like I said we didn't have a lot and that would include extra food, but, no matter how many people joined us at the dinner table Mommy would feed them. And guess what, we never went without a meal. Mommy could stretch a dollar farther than anyone I have ever met.
Mom was a very gentle soul who hated confrontation. I remember as a little girl - I wasn't in school yet, and a door-to-door salesman was coming up our street. Mom and I were eating chicken noodle soup and Mom spotted that salesman and quick as a wink she had us grab our soup bowls and go upstairs to the bedroom to hide. I remember asking her why we were hiding, and she told me because we didn't have money to buy anything and she felt bad telling the man no, because that was how he made his living.
I hear all the memories of how Martha was always playing with the later generation of children. I guess like most mothers, she was too busy taking care of us, to really have the time to play with us. I know that is how it was when I was raising my girls. Later in life, Mom often said to me that she wished she had let the housework go and played with us more. You know, I never really remember thinking that Mom was neglecting us, because she was always there for us when we needed her and she made our house happy and peaceful - a real home.
Mom always supported me in whatever it was I wanted to do. She worked and pinched pennies even harder so I could take piano lessons, she would sit and help me sew and make clothes for my dolls. She would sit as proud as a peacock when I sang at church or was in a play or school program. I just always knew she was there if I happened to fall - she was my ever present safety net.
In my young adult life and even into my present day life, she never gave me her opinion without being asked. When I would come to her to confess something that I could no longer hold in she would just tell me that it didn't matter now, and that she loved me no matter what. She loved my children unconditionally and treated each one as if they were her only grandchild. Just the same way that she treated my sisters and I.
Living with Mom these last couple of months gave me the most precious memories of her. I will always remember how she loved me, and when she needed me most I was privileged to be able to care for her until her last breath on this earth. But, you see it doesn't end there. Because of the way my mother lived her life and the way she raised me, I now know God and he is my best friend just like he was Mom's best friend, and I can continue to be the woman my Mom always wanted me to be. The one she knew I could be. Because of my mother and her example, I know I will someday soon see her again in Heaven, the place she taught us about and the place where she is now waiting for me to come and be with her again.
I love you Martha Marie Ormsbee, my "Mommy”. Hold me a place right next to you!
