My Mom grew up in a family that was always lacking the security of a regular income. This played into her decision to marry my father, since she believed a school teacher would always have a job. She trained as a nurse during WWII, but was never drafted into service, which was a good thing. She couldn’t stand the sight of blood, passed out during a surgery rotation. Though every injured child on my street was brought to our house to seek treatment; she just smiled and took care of them.

While running a singles club she met my father. When he proposed she refused to marry him since he was younger than her (there was 9 months between them), so they waited for his 30^th birthday and got married two weeks later. Then between the ages of 30 and 45 she had 9 children. I believe it was because they were being good Catholics and being fruitful and multiplying, but according to her it was because of an allergy to latex. I remember whenever she got mad at one of us and her going down the names of the kids until the right one was found and then proceeded to yell at us. I have the same issue and I only have three kids. Of all of her childbirths she said the best one was when she got snowed in at the hospital for a couple of days with the newborn.

From what I’ve heard she worked as a nurse until I was born, her 6^th child, and then became a full time mom. When my Dad asked her to marry, he promised that she would never have to cook, he lied. To say my mother liked to cook or was good at it would also be a lie. The family joke was that her meatloaf was the corner stone to the addition on the house. My Dad on the other hand loved to cook, so once he retired from work, she retired from cooking; no tears were shed there by us.

She was also a HUGE sports fan and it really didn’t matter what sport, she watched everything. Once found her watching cricket because nothing else was on, didn’t understand it, but still… The only reason we got cable was so she could watch more sports. I have many memories of watching games with her. I also relayed on her for the game times of our favorite college basketball team, now I have to look it up myself. I wonder if you can receive texts from heaven?

After my dad passed away she actually figured out how to use the internet, something my dad never did. She liked to order books off Amazon.

She ended up with 21 grandchildren before passing a couple of years ago, well into her 80’s. The day of her funeral was one of the biggest snow storms of the season where she lived, didn’t stop it, but I thought it poetic; big storm, big family.