A Birthday Blessing for my MomMy Mother is 92 years old today. She was born in 1928, just a year before Anne Frank, Martin Luther King, and Barbara Walters. The four of them could not have lived more differently.
Mother grew up on a farm in the panhandle of a Oklahoma. She told stories about riding her donkey to school and wearing dresses made from flour sacks. The Depression was full blown and money was scarce. Mother was smart; brilliant, actually. People say she was like her father. Along with farming, he kept the books at the cattle sale, doing all the math effortlessly in his head. Mother’s aunt Glenna Maude saw her abilities and offered to pay for her to go to college. I wonder how her life might have changed if she had accepted that offer? Instead, she reluctantly made a career as a medical insurance clerk, eventually becoming the manager of the clinic. I remember the day Toby came to the door with some papers. I don’t know what Toby’s job was -maybe just an errand boy- but the picture of him at our door has stuck in my mind all these years. Mother cried a little as she signed the papers. They must have been the agreement for her to return to work, because soon she was splitting her time between housekeeping and typewriting. Mother would rather have been home full time, but she went to work “Mondays, Wednesdays, and a Friday afternoons.” Her office was only a few minutes from home and she came home to make lunch every day. No sandwich ever sat on our table. All meals were hot, right off the stove, and usually included meat, potatoes, a vegetable, fruit, and dessert. Mom could cook it, eat it, clean it up, and dash back to work, all within the allotted hour. Three meals a day were served from Mom’s kitchen. All hot, all delicious. Weekends were for baking, cleaning, and getting ready for church. There were typically several pies, usually a cake, and always her famous cinnamon rolls. Mom allowed me to eat pie for breakfast since I was (happily) allergic to eggs. I still think the best breakfast is apple pie! Mom’s life was complicated with almost constant pain. All the medications she knew from her work were ineffective for her. The doctors who employed her tried everything they knew, then sent her to the best specialists they could find, but there were no answers. Finally, a pain specialist found a medication that keeps her brain from receiving the signal of the pain that is still raging in her body. I am not brilliant like my mother. My career is far less stressful than hers. My table is seldom set with delicious, hot meals. I am blessed with good health, free of pain. By comparison my life is so, so easy. I think seeing my mother in agonizing pain, failed by modern medicine, has made me eager to find effective alternatives. Medicine is wonderful when it is necessary and when it works, but I think of it as a last resort, not a first option. I love spraying ON GUARD essential oil in Mom’s room, chasing away the germ soup that is always stewing in her facility. When her neck is stiff and sore I have a quick solution; DEEP BLUE RUB. When she is fretful I offer her my “perfume,” a blend of oils called SERENITY created specifically to calm and relax. I can’t make her well. I can’t give back the years she suffered and toiled through the pain. But I can offer little bits of comfort and that is my great joy. Mother no longer knows me but I know her, and I am grateful for every memory of our life together. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, sweet Mother. I love you.
7 Comments
Joyce
1/20/2020 07:58:43 pm
WOW...what an awesome picture of Eileen's life. And I hadn't heard about riding the donkey to school -- Vernal used to always tell me she was giving me some Steinkuehler 101 training and the stories she shared were marvelous but she didn't include that one. I think those story-telling genes run very strong throughout your whole family. You'll need to write a book for us, Glenda!
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1/20/2020 09:34:17 pm
What a beautiful story of your mother! My mom was also born in January 1928. I didn’t realize those others were so close in age. I’m so sorry your mom has suffered so much pain. She sounds like a wonderful mom. You are blessed! And so is she to have you as a daughter. ❤️
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Brian
1/21/2020 09:03:47 am
...and she always made me homemade cherry cheesecake with graham cracker crust every time I came to visit. Love you Granny😘😘😘
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Karen
1/21/2020 09:32:07 am
Glenda what a wonderful tribute to your sweet Mother. I sent many nights at your parents home. She was a great cook and her sticky cinnamon rolls were the best. The key was fresh cream that she would go out in the country and purchase.
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Glenda Robinson
1/25/2020 10:36:16 am
Karen, Mother loved you and your family so much. We are all grateful for your presence in our lives.
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Lynford Coleman
1/21/2020 07:03:40 pm
I was one of those who blessed to know your mom up close and personal. I was just an ornery kid from Beaver, OK, who had a runny nose and sneezed from hay fever through most of my grade school years. You see, this sweet lady is my Aunt Eileen, and among my most favorite summer memories are those days spent visiting my cousin Terry in Guymon, and my Uncle Escal, but most especially, my Aunt Eileen. I know Terry had some sisters, but they were always off somewhere doing girl things (they were never interested in playing catch or football 🙂), but Aunt Eileen always treated us so special -- even when we were dirty, stinky, and sweaty. Even one day when we accidentally broke a window playing whiffle ball in the vacant lot next to their house -- oh boy -- I was expecting reform school at the worst, or a good whipping at the least, but Aunt Eileen just smiled, patted us on the head, and told us to be more careful. I guess my Uncle Escal fixed the window when he got home from work, but he never said one word about it. I loved my Aunt Eileen as a kid, I still love my Aunt Eileen as an old man in my seventies. I've never known a more elegant, loving, caring person. Happy Birthday Aunt Eileen.
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Glenda Robinson
1/25/2020 10:34:15 am
Lynford, Mother would be so proud to see the man you became. She is still elegant and kind. Those special traits are deep inside her. 💗
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