Mama's Day

Here's a pic of Mama at St Patrick's Seminary. She had to wear that air filter/mask thing ALL.THE.TIME. She took it off for this pic, held her breath, and put it on the angel. Still makes me cry.

Here's a similar pic of Dad, Mama, and Dear Dear (Dad's aunt. She lived about a month after mom died. Dear Dear however lived just days after her own 100th birthday. They woke her up at midnight of her 100th bday and sat her up, handed her a glass of champagne and said Happy 100th bday! Her reply? "Oh sh*t. That's way too old.") Anyways, Dear Dear hung her cane and purse on St Francis of Assisi's arm. Charming eh?

The Peterson Clan on the outer banks of North Carolina. For the record Granddad was 6-4, Grandmere was 5-1.

These are the men behind the Manhattan project, and their respective families. See Granddad far right, below him Grandmere who is holding my mom. 1944-ish.

She found beauty in everything. After all the chemo and bone marrow transplant she finally asked dad to shave the rest of her head. She was done with the little wispy pieces that still remained. She was ready to be done with it. She put in her favorite earrings made by her best friend Chris, and set her self against the backdrop of the paint tarp at St Patrick's:

... I've never ever seen beauty so simply stated and embraced.

See: something about a mama and her baby...even my mama and her mama too. =)

Mama, me and Lu. Christmas 99. Yes we are wearing tiaras.

Favorites of Mama:

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First day of rain breakfasts at Spanky's
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Doing cartwheels down the middle of hwy9 when no cars were coming

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Going through the lockes in France and being blessed by a little medicine woman with magic potion
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Learning how to split Iris bulbs after the blooming season

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How she would plant her string bean plants in a circle, so that in the heat of summer I'd have a little hide out right in the middle. I'd have just enough room to sit with my crayons and a stack of paper and draw for hours in the shade

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She'd always make fast friends with the janitors and gardeners where ever she went

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Another year and I'm not missing her any less, and at the same time I don't feel any less connected to her. Curious. What I have newly found, is that some of those oh-so-special things that I thought were just qualities that Mama possessed, are actually qualities I'm finding in friends and family that I never knew to look for before. I miss her voice. I have a friend whose voice so closely resembles Mama's at times that I have to stop what I'm doing to catch my breath. A friend with the same sensible, organic heart that can reason any trouble. This is beautiful. What more will I find?

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And just to come full circle with this, and end on a silly sweet idea: I have a theory about Mama and Bitty and Mama's kidneys and Bitty's being a pee-pee machine. Mama's kidneys were damaged from the amyloid early on, and eventually shut down completely, rendering her in complete renal failure. Kidneys serve a very vital purpose, helping to rid the body of waste. Anyways, Mama was a trooper no doubt, but I know it was a constant struggle for her deal with the dialysis every single day. So here's my theory: When Mama got to heaven and there was informed that I would soon be pregnant. I think that Mama and God had a little 'meet and confer' if you will, and I think given all the kidney problems she'd had...she bargained long and hard for Bitty...so Bitty has been blessed with the MOST FUNCTIONAL KIDNEYS EVER. They process the pee-pee like it's no body's business. So the moral of this story is: every morning when I wake up and Bitty is pee-peed all the way down to her soggy socks and up to her little armpits, I can just picture Mama saying, "I worked hard for that," with a little wink and a smile.