I’m Becoming My Mother

I believe that my mother was true to herself.  She had her opinions  and they were strong, but she was an honest, hard-working person with intelligence and a mind of her own.  She could do almost anything she set her mind to do. She studied academic subjects in school, including Latin.  After high school she went to Penn Commercial and became an outstanding  typist, bookkeeper, and shorthand taker.  These skills may sound foreign today, but in her day they were highly valued and any one of them could land you a good job.

Here’s a small part of what she taught me by her actions. Love animals and take care of them — especially birds. Know your birds.  And if you have a dog or cats, take care of them too. As a farm girl she loved animals, but also knew the harsh realities that both farmers and animals faced. I don’t think she ever forgot that or wanted to return to farming. Rising early to milk cows and then to walk through the cold to school was not a myth; it was her life.

Another lesson she taught us: take care of what you consume and recycle and reuse as much as possible.  In her later years I would help her with her recycling when I was visiting. Clean bottles and cans. Paper wrapped carefully in bundles for the VFW nearby. Cardboard for the City Mission wrapped in neat stacks with twine. And the special collection of “pop” cans for my Uncle Stanley who collected them for a charity. Recycling didn’t mean throwing everything away at the curb. It meant finding a new use for old things.

Leftover greens and vegetables went to the goats and Rosie the donkey on my brother’s farm. When my mother’s car got within Rosie’s sight, the braying would begin. You see this wasn’t just recycling, it was “purpose-ful” recycling.

At this stage of my life it has been a gift for me to find myself becoming more like her.  I love to bike by the sea, read, eat simple vegetables, fruits and fish, and spend time with animals and do my best to help out those in need.  To anyone who finds this attractive I invite you to try “mom’s way of resourceful living.”

Photo by Nancy White Carlstrom