Strength isn't always measured by someones physical strength, but sometimes it's measured by how they live.

(I apologize in advanced for the chaotic randomness my thoughts are in and the length of this post.)

In May, I wrote about my dad the day after what would have been his 59th birthday. Today, 11/20/08 would have been Mama's 59th birthday, and I wanted to tell you some of the cool things I remember about her. 

This 1st picture is my mom on the way to my high school graduation. And her typical "Take that picture and I will hunt you down and maim you." look.

And this 2nd picture... if she was in a good mode and she actually posed for a picture... this is the face she would give you. Big Grandpa (her dad) took this picture the day of my graduation.

Mama was so extremely cool! Her favorite actors were John Wayne, Chuck Norris, and Mel Gibson. (Nothing freakier than listening to her and Ms Juanita talk about which one of those three had the finer backsides!) Her favorite movie was The Quiet Man. her favorite music was country music and her three favorite singers were George Straight, Reba McEntire, and The Judds. (I guess that's actually four, but that's just a technicality!) Her favorite thing to drink was either coffee or Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi and she drank that stuff like it was going out of style. 

When we were little and she could still get on the floor with us, she would play games with us. Or we would have movie fests on the living room floor whenever Daddy would go on TDY. She would babysit our dolls and teddy bears, and she treated them like flesh and blood grandbabies. She saw this quote in and Ann Landers article once and LOVED it because it was exactly what she thought was important and how she thought a mom should be able to answer if God were to really ask them about their lives:

If I should die, and God should say, "Did you clean your house today?" I will say, "I did not. I was playing with my children and I forgot."

And my mama... she was the strongest person I have ever met. Not physically. Half the time, Mama couldn't hold a book it was to heavy, and she could barely walk from her bedroom to the kitchen most days... her body wasn't able to even hold her weight. She had Rheumatoid Arthritis, Type I Diabetes and so many other health problems the list is almost as long as I am tall. If you take your fingers and hold them so that all of your fingertips touch... thats how her hands would look, stiff from the RA flare-ups.

But that didn't stop her. She did crafts everyday... and if she didn't know how to do one that caught her eye, she would teach herself. Even when she could no longer pick up a crochet hook, a knitting needle, or even a fork.... she would figure out how to make it work. One of the last crafts she learned was decorative quilting. She would make these quilted jackets (without buttons) and she would sit for hours carefully hand stitching quilted designs that would tell a story when she was done.

Mama loved to learn. She was always studying something, usually a Bible study. Open up one of her Bibles, and you could usually find notes scattered everywhere, verses marked and highlighted.

She taught me everything I know about a kitchen. When I was 10, standing up for long amounts of time became difficult for her and when we moved to Germany, she started teaching me to cook. By the time I was 15, I could cook 95% of what she could and just like her, from memory. As the years passed, she spent less time at the stove and more time chatting with me while I cooked.

Mama loved to read. She once told me that the belief that you could escape reality and become the hero in whatever book you were reading was so true for her. That when she escaped in a book, she was tall and whole and perfectly healthy. When she could no longer hold a book's weight, and the Diabetes began to affect her eyesight, she got books on tape. I can remember a lot of days spent sitting across from her at the kitchen table listening to her books while working on a craft of some kind.

All of our friends loved her. I remember having a fight with my high school boy friend... and he was so upset, he called my mom to talk to her about how he was feeling. Not because she was my mom... but because Mama was... well, Mama. Even the boys at church loved her. When she first got her electric wheelchair, they didn't make fun of her, they told her they were gonna lower it like their trucks, and soup up the engine so she could roll with the posse!

Mama taught us the importance of strong friendships and she taught us that lesson by demonstration. In Texas, she had Ms Barbie. In Germany there was Ms Richard-Dean and Ms Jocyln. And in Georgia, Joanie and Ms Juanita. Each one of her friends became a part of our family. If we came home and she wasn't there, we called her friends first, then Daddy at work. If she ever had a need for them, they were there. 

Mama taught us how to be strong of faith, of will, and of character. No matter how much might have wanted to give up, she never did. She conceded her mobility, but not her faith. She conceded her independence, but not her faith. She conceded her hobbies, but never her faith. I'm sure she would occasionally ask God, "WHY ME?!?!?!" but her faith was strong. She had her down days, but Mama would pick herself up and carry on.

In June of 1994, Mama had an AMAZING DAY!!! She went out with Ms Juanita and participated in the "Walk For Jesus", across one of the bridges from Augusta, Georgia to North Augusta, South Carolina. Then they made a day of it, with lunch and a trip to the bookstore. Later that night, I came home form a date with my boyfriend and found Mama still up. We sat and talked until the wee hours of the morning. She told me about her day and about how blessed she was to have such good friends in her life. And as I got up to head for bed, she stopped me and said something that will comfort me for the rest of my life.

"Charity hunny, if I died tomorrow, I'm ready to go." 

That was the last conversation I had with my mom. The next day she was hospitalized after a severe allergic reaction to a spider bite. She never regained consciousness. 17 days later she went home to the Lord. But I'll always be grateful for that last conversation with her. Because I know she was ready. And I learned a lot from my Mama. 

Happy Birthday, Mama. You're in our thoughts daily. Thanks for being a mom who taught us how to be good moms, good wives, and good children of God. We miss you!