Mamaw...

Mamaw has alzheimers. She's had it for years, and is pretty much nonresponsive most of the time now. We found out yesterday that she's had several strokes and is paralyzed on the left side also.

Vida Mae is her name. She turned 90 this past April, while I was in the hospital. She helped raise me, and has been the stable force in my life. I love this woman so much. She's petite...she could never claim to be taller than 5 feet. When I was younger she was plump and had a huge bosom that was perfect for resting your head against when you had a booboo and she'd cuddle you to make you feel better. She called it "petting". When I came home from the 90-91 Gulf War, I climbed up on the couch beside her, laid my head in her lap, and asked her to "pet" me. I was 21 years old lol.

Mamaw taught me how to sew doll dresses, how to crochet, how to cook cornbread when I was 5 years old, how to tell time with a paper clock she made for me, how to read, write, and do simple math, all before I started grade school. When I was sick with pneumonia in 4th grade and missed 52 days of school straight, she forced me to eat cornmeal mush (I'd been throwing up everything) and not only did it "stick" but it was good!! She encouraged my imagination in so many small ways. She had WONDERFUL ghost stories (that she swore were true, and we've never known her to lie), wonderful poems and songs to share with us. She taught me to spell Mississippi when I was 3 (M-I-crooked letter-crooked letter-I-crooked letter-crooked letter-I-humpback-humpback-I), Huckleberry Pie (H you huckle B you buckle Huckleberry Pie!). She never criticized me, but wouldn't hesitate to discipline me. I feared her sharp thumbnail in church, and her wire flyswatter at home!

She taught me to eat rice with butter and milk. Yes, milk...like a broth. Its good! She taught me to sprinkle sugar over freshly sliced strawberries and then cover them with milk for another tasty treat. She bought snowballs for me. She made dolls for me out of corn husks and silk to keep me out of her hair when she was shucking fresh corn from my Aunt Bertha's farm. She took me all over the south-central Mississippi countryside, showing me various "local landmarks", graveyards, haunted houses. We used to ramble for hours on end. She taught me how to find good bargains at garage sales (she called them "garbage sales").

When I was overseas in the first Gulf War, she baked a fruitcake for me and sent it to me, having to pay $22 for shipping because it was so heavy. It fermented on the way over because she doused it with wine to "preserve" it. I sold 1 inch squares for $5 a pop hehe. She wrote me funny, encouraging letters, and didn't laugh at my attempts at "comic strip" stories to show what I'd been up to each week. The comics were drawn with stick figures. Last year, when we moved Mamaw into Mom's house, I found all those old letters from 1990-91 tucked away in Mamaw's dresser drawer. She stayed up all night to help Mom drive to Ft. Bragg, NC to meet me when I got off the plane after 9 months overseas.

Mamaw never finished the 4th grade. She had to go home to help run the family farm. They were very poor. When she was in her 50's, she took classes and got her GED. She was constantly encouraging us to learn. No one ever knew that she'd never graduated or even attended high school because she always strove to learn and keep learning. I think I inherited my thirst for knowledge and love of history from her :-)

She got married at 17, and by the time she was in her early twenties, she'd had 5 children and buried 2 of them. All total she had 9...8 boys and one girl...my mother. I can't even imagine raising 9 children on a single income, but she did it. She made them all graduate from high school and even managed to get a couple through college. She was widowed before she was 40 and left with 4 children at home to care for, and had to find a job for the first time in her life. When she interviewed, she heard them tell another lady (who was 3 years younger than Mamaw) that she was really a little too old for the position. Mamaw walked in and quite brazenly told them she was 15 years younger than she was, and they believed her. She had such a love of life, such a jolly personality, that it was easy to believe she was much younger than she was. She got the job :-)

Mamaw, you'll never read this, but I love you and I miss you every day. God blessed me the day he allowed me to be your granddaughter.