Saturday, February 21, 2009

My Mother's Birthday





Yesterday was my mother's birthday. She would be 85 today if she were alive. She was born Julia Levelle Zeiger on February 20th, 1929.


She was only 7 months old when her mother died leaving her in the care of her father and 4 older siblings. Her father remarried, and had 4 more children. She was definitely a middle child.


She spent a good bit of her life with her father's sister, Gertie Creech, who loved her like a daughter, and to whom she was devoted.


As you can imagine, she didn't have an easy life. Being shuffled around as a small child wasn't easy I'm sure. But I don't ever remember hearing her complain about her early life. It was just accepted as part of ordinary living.


At the end of WWII, when my would be father came home from the war, they met and married. She then began life as a farmer's wife. Soon their first child was born-that would be my older brother, then a couple of years later, I arrived on the scene.


On our farm, we raised pigs, chickens, cotton, soybeans, strawberries and wheat. We had a cow for milk, and I don't ever remember being hungry. Mother made biscuits 3 times a day. She was the one who milked the cow, and took care of the chickens.


It was not an easy life, and then my younger brother came along. But we didn't notice that it was hard. Our lives were much like those of every other family we knew. None of us had much money, so there wasn't fancy clothes to envy, no name brand sneakers, or jackets with high priced logo's on them. We all wore our Tuff Nut denim jeans, our Keds sneakers and homemade shirts. We looked like all the other kids at school.


My mother's life was cut short. She died in an automobile accident on June 19, 1969 at the age of 44 on her way back from a job interview. We never did find out if she got the job. Doesn't matter anyway. We miss her still. I'm sorry that my children and the children of my brothers never got to know this amazing woman. All we can do is tell them about her and hope they see the same traits in us. And I sincerely hope I have some of them.


Hope you have a great Friday. Pray for our country. Love one another.

4 comments:

Lisa said...

Oh my goodness. What a great example of being a good woman your momma was. Wouldn't it be nice to never complain about things today? And to have life very simple once again? But we will not see that...unless things go really bad in this country. And I guess that honestly COULD happen. Then those fancy jeans and tennis shoes won't be on the priority list huh?

Flea said...

Your mother sounds fantastic. I'm sorry your kids never got to know her.

Lena . . . said...

What a beautiful picture of a beautiful woman. Thanks for sharing our story.

MaBunny said...

Oh what a beautiful tribute to your mother! She sounds like a good woman!

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