Hootin' Anni's Day Trippin'

Kitten is our hostess this week for Fun Monday. And she asks of us to:

"Who is Your Hero" Not from TV, but your real life hero. It can one or it can be many. Just someone you have or do look up to. You can do this any way you would like and if you want or can, share pictures!

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She was one of three girls in her family of siblings. 12 children in all! She was the 4th oldest of her immediate family. And of course, being from such a large family, you'd no doubt guess that her family was of a farming community. I remember the house she grew up in as I was privileged to be there most weekends until I was five, when we moved to Colorado because of my dad's job. The house was huge...Three stories. I can still vividly see 'my room' where I slept when I stayed there for weekends. How I loved that room. It was almost 'turret-like'...odd shaped walls...not just your ordinary squared off rooms...the walls were angled and had bay windows both facing south and west. From the south window I could get up from the feather-tick mattress and see the huge barn and the tractor ruts out into the fields of corn! To the west, looking out the window I could see the iron of the sky-high windmill!! And below this the spring and just beyond the windmill, the chicken coop in the distance along with a huge field of hay and grazing cattle. How I loved this place, and how I wish I could turn back time. When my grandparents passed, the 16 section piece of farm was sold, and the huge house was moved to 'town'. So much for going back in time, huh?

Back to my hero. She was born in 1911. As I said, she was the oldest of the girls and when her youngest sister was just a toddler, my mom, then near teenage years, was watching her in the house while my grandparents [her mom and dad] were out in the fields, working. Somehow, as the story goes, my aunt was burned in a fire. My mom told me she remembers her yelling to her younger brothers to get the 'folks'...she burned badly, and didn't survive the fire. My mother always blamed herself for her young sister's death.

She graduated from high school [back in those days that was an accomplished life!]. She met my dad at a high school baseball game. [Hmmmmmmm, wonder why I love baseball so much?] They both lived a wonderful marriage for over 55 years. Birthing five children of their own [three naturally, and home deliveries -while my youngest older brother and myself were born in hospitals], living and surviving through the Great Depression. I remember one particular story about them owning a car but the headlights went dead in the car [back then, there weren't batteries as we know today] ---and in order to get back home, my mom propped herself on the hood of the car, in the dark, in order for my dad to drive the country roads...seeing only by my mother holding a flashlight in front of the car's hood!!. They loved traveling the USA --camping mostly where here again, it wasn't much of a 'vacation for her' as she did cooking and cleaning and laundry while they took 3 state wide trips to see the country! With absolutely no complaining. To me, today, that's not a vacation-I'd want room service!! They kept on striving to make a good life. It wasn't easy. She was mother of five, grandmother of 8 and great grandmother of 8 at the time of her death.




Over the years we'd become quite the confidants in my life; me and my mother! She told me stories of her youth, and her young teen-aged life; stories she never shared with any others. Two of her favorite songs that she'd sing at the top of her lungs was "You Don't Know Me" along with Ray Charles, and "Secret Love" by Doris Day. She once told me of a 'secret love' of hers. One of which my father, to his dying days, was jealous of...so I'm assuming that it wasn't too 'secret' with him. More so with her kids. It was a classmate of hers. And a twist of fate brought my father and us to Colorado because of his skilled reputation in his line of work for the government, that lo and behold we learned my mother's secret love also resided just north of Denver, near where we relocated. Wow...I remember so well.

My mom, in her later years, suffered and survived four strokes!! She loved my Bud. Those two were inseparable!! He was a favorite for her of all the 'in-laws'. The two adored each other and had quite a wonderful, and meaningful 'son-mother' relationship. I think secretly she knew he was the best of the lot of her kids' spouses. LOL When she had her 5th stroke, she recognized no one but Bud! It was a very tearful time, she couldn't speak, but her eyes glowed at the end...she lit up the room when Bud entered with her acknowledgment of him, and as the two of us...Bud and myself sat at her bedside, she breathed her last.


And to this day, I find myself singing or humming a certain song, and I think of my own 'personal luminary', my mom!!!

Once I had a secret love
That lived within the heart of me
All too soon my secret love
Became impatient to be free

So I told a friendly star
The way that dreamers often do
Just how wonderful you are
And why I am so in love with you

Now I shout it from the highest hills
Even told the golden daffodils

At last my heart's an open door
And my secret love's no secret anymore....

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She is, and always will remain my hero.




♥ ♥ ♥Mom♥ ♥ ♥
[b. 1911 d. 1990]

The images are watermarked, and titled -you can read the caption by holding cursor over image.

Next Week's Hostess


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Added 7:30 AM---today is Gotcha Day!
Winston was adopted 3 years ago today...