In Remembrance

Wednesday, July 13th was the anniversary of my Mom's death. I wrote a remembrance for the blog, but after looking through pictures I had to add to what I wrote I decided that as trite as it may sound, a picture is worth a thousand words. All of these pictures make me smile. Miss you, Mom!

Mom played the clarinet, saxophone and piano and was in a bad called The Klever Kids.  She is in the first row, 3rd from the right.

Mom is 5 in this picture and is already stylin'!  Black became her favorite color as she got older and I have to say, I like the hat!

This is Mom at the age 7.  You can tell that they added color to the picture and I would assume Grandma curled her hair.  I like the halter dress she is wearing too. 

Mom is about 18 in this picture.  I know she met my dad when she was 18, but I don't know if this was taken before or after she met him.  I have a feeling one of my sisters know. 

Mom and Dad loved to dance so this was not an uncommon sight.  How about the blue pants Dad is wearing?  He loved to wear colorful pants and yes, he did golf.  There is no date on this picture, but I would put it sometime in the late 80's or early 90's.

This was taken when we lived in Hartwell.  Mom had 2 dogs at this time and I don't know if this Duchess or Duke. I guess we would need a different shot to determine the dogs name.

This picture is dated February 1944 which means she would have been 16.  I'm not sure the occasion for this picture, but when I was young I thought she looked like a movie star in this picture.  I love the lace stole and her smile.

I had to add this picture becaues it looks like her head is sitting below her shoulders or that she has no neck.  This was on her First Communion day.

This was taken in 1946 in Florida. Isn't this kind of bathing suit back in style?  She was engaged to my dad at this point because she kept the letters he wrote to her while she was in Florida. 

This was in 1957 at the Lexington Horse Park.  Liz was born in December, 1956 so she must have stayed at home with Grandma.  From left to right is me [age 4], Pattie, Mom, Ellen and Tom.  Pattie is acting as if she likes me, but she did love to torture me.  I was an easy target, so I don't blame her. 

I've always liked this picture of Mom with my brother John.  This was taken at his wedding in October, 1999.  Mom is 71 in this picture and she looks so good!  And believe it or not, her hair is not dyed... that was her natural color. 

Mom is 11 in this picture and I love the whole picture.  Her shiny dress with her shiny saxophone and her shiny tap shoes.  Yes...tap shoes!  She would play the sax, sing and tap dance.  And she did it on the radio too.  I always thought that was funny - tap dancing on the radio! 

This is on her wedding day - November 28, 1946.  My sister Barb and my niece Jenny wore this dress on their wedding day too.  I wonder now what she thought seeing her daughter and her niece get married in her dress.  I wish I would have asked her.  She looks happy and it's the same smile I remember growing up that was always such a comfort.