Sanguine Tenacious Tidings

Are You Motherly?

Creation Saturday! Since Sunday is Mother's Day in the US, write a tribute to your mom, grandmother, favorite aunt, or friend that helped you in a motherly way.

My mom died when I was 5 about to turn 6. My care fell to aunt's and hired people. My dad worked days so he cared for us nights. Most of the aunt's with input left some messages in my brain. Today, I feel the differences in society between then and now. About 65 years worth of change.

Dad always read to us at night, took me to the basketball court, when he went to play basketball, and made me cold hamburger sandwiches because he knew I liked them.

Aunt Marge was the least restrictive. She was my Mother's sister. I have fond memories of spending time with her all summer one year. Her daughter, Kathy was close to my age. Aunt Marge played piano like my mother and taught us to sing, "You are my Sunshine." She was very motherly. Her and a female friend put some effort into finding out why I was such an unresponsive child?

Aunt Doris was my Father's sister. She gave me a work ethic. It is way too dense but, I noticed that runs in the family on my father's side of DNA.

Some time was spent in Uncle Myron's (Dad's brother) home with another female cousin. Aunt Joyce Uncle Myron's wife) was motherly as well. One time she noticed when I showed up I was very cold. She went out and bought me a very stylish coat from the salvation army. It was feminine and wool, especially, very warm. I really liked that coat. She also gave me a ring for Christmas with my birthstone in it also cherished. Joyce's daughter was one year older. Aunt Joyce encouraged her daughter to help me along my way, we went to grade school and high school in the same class. She helped me get my first library card and let me work her paper route sometimes. If I had lived in town I would have liked a paper route. It was early morning when the birds start to sing and people were not out and about yet.

One of Aunt Joyce's sisters spent a summer with us or part of a summer, as a housekeeper and caregiver. She was a very nice person. I do not remember much about the time she was with us.

My stepmother, Wilma entered our lives when I was about 12. She had two small children of her own. A boy and a girl. They were both toddlers. I was 12. Wilma tried to mother me sometimes. Mostly she felt I was unreachable, I guess. I spent a lot of time playing in the barn, walking the dog in the nearby fields, riding a pony all over the country side, or at Aunt Doris's house with her family. I always had a book to read.

When I moved to North Dakota I had a good friend in a trailer court that came from down south somewhere. She was the first good gossipy girl friend I had. When her trailer burned she moved back with her family. We lost touch.

There was a really wonderful person who was the landlady when I lived in the Panama Canal Zone for a short time. She hid my baby son and I during the riots and was responsible for getting an armored car and Guadia National to pick us up and take us safely to the Air Force Base . (1963?}

In the late "60's" I had two good female friends at the Air Force Base Stable. We all kept horses there. Gretchen and Sharon. Gretchen gave me good horse health information. Sharon taught me to groom Poodles which gave me a small income.

There were other influential people I met as minor friends or who walked in and out of my life at one point who gave me good advice or helped me with fife information that turned me in one direction of thought or another.

I'm not sure what you mean by motherly because all these women gave me good advice or care at one time or another.

Psychology 101 at Edinboro was taught by a gentleman with a degree in psychiatry. The class spent some time on environmental influences as they pertain to the way people form their life experiences and responses.

I have to say all of these people deserve some tribute because they contributed to my knowledge and care in one way or another.