My Mother passed away this morning.  She was 92 years old.  I have wrote this for her funeral.

Because of Mom

Cooking
Mom taught us how to cook.  She taught us how to read recipes and then using that as our foundation we learned to cook.  Oh my, experimenting with recipes.  Are we allowed to do that?  We did.  Mom had the courage to teach us that we were allowed to experiment.  Sometimes we made great things, sometimes we did not.  (I remember a cherry pie once that was a little questionable)

 We eat the healthiest we know how.  Always pushing the fruits and vegetables, always adding stuff to cookies to make them healthier then the recipe.  I added to this knowledge, passed it on to my sons and now they have taken eating healthy to a whole new level.  All because of Mom.
 
We feed those who are hungry.  No body went hungry that Mom knew needed food.  No one would go without the cloths they needed.  Mom would go to her own closet and give them her cloths if they were in need.  I saw her do it.  I learned from Mom.
Sewing

When Moms sewing machine stopped it was about 50 years old.  We all learned to use that sewing machine from Mom.  I was in girl scouts, 4-H, and took sewing in school but they did not hold a candle to Mom when it comes to sewing. 

Relationships

Mom was not a joiner.  She did not join churches; she shied away from joining women’s organizations most of the time.  But if you made friends with Mom you were a friend for life.  You would get one of Moms little hand made gifts every once in a while.  Mom made friends with the people that worked at here assisted living building.  I think she was the most proud of the young man who worked there when she first came.  He has gone on to college and is doing quite well for his self.

Mom had a mission.  It was those she met everyday in her walk of life.  I think that is what we all are supposed to do. 

Creativity

Do you think she passed on her creativity to anyone?  Mom loved to create stuff.  Her closets were full of clothes she had taken apart and was in the process of remaking into something new and different.  She always wanted to design dresses.  Her house was full of stuff she was taking apart and stuff she was putting together. 

I live in my studio.  I do not see any difference between Mom and me.  To me this is just a continuation of creating.  She had a need to create and so do I.  God help the people who have to clean my studio out someday.

Acceptance

When Dad passed several years ago we moved Mom to Lima from Newark, Ohio.  We had to do it quickly because none of us were close enough to where her and Dad lived and winter was coming.  So within 2 months we had cleaned out her house of 60 years of saving and memories and moved here to Lima to Assisted living and had the house painted and up for sale.  We knew that was way too fast to do this but we, at that time, had no other choice. 

Loosing Dad and loosing her house and her way of life and being thrust into a new averment, new people, and new doctors was very hard on her.  She did it, though.  I only saw her break down once when I told her I had given her kitchen table and chairs away.  I could of cut my tongue out at that point. 

But you see I do not think she cried because I gave them away.  She cried because she did not know the people who got them and had not been able to tell them the history of the table and chairs.  I do not remember when they did not have that table set.  We eat all our meals there though out our growing up.  They had quit a history.

Because of Mom we all have a foundation of knowing we can make a difference, in our lives and those around us.  Be that just our small set of friends, our community or in the world at large.  I believe we are passing this on to the future generations.

Because of Mom we see what we have and create outrageous new stuff out of it that we can use or give to others to use.  Most of creations were, functional, some of it decoration.  Some of it was funny.  Bev. received a lacy slip sent to her once with a tiny pocket sewn in it.  Mom liked to lift others spirit.

I am an artist and one of the rule I learned when I went to collage was, “You learn the rules so you can break them well”.  Mom broke rules.  She did it quietly but she did it.

That was the same rule my Mom taught us about sewing, cooking, relationships, creativity, and acceptance.