Influential Women of the Family - Part 3

(Madam Ancestry's personal family photo)

Sickness (and tears) caused me to send this out late, but there was no way I was letting Women's History Month end without honoring...MY MAMA!

This picture of us is kind of blurry but it's still one of my favorites! I don't specifically remember this event, but I do know it was someone's birthday and we had birthday cake. There were a lot of us so it seemed like we had birthday cake quite often (smile). For a long time, mama used to make all of our birthday cakes. I can remember going with her to some place where she would take classes on cake decorating and voila! Perfectly decorated birthday cakes! It was the best to eat the leftover cake batter from the bowl - and so worth the smack on the hand for touching the cake piper and tasting the frosting inside! My Miss Piggy birthday cake was probably my favorite birthday cake! She made it for my 6th birthday and I'll never forget it!

(Madam Ancestry's personal family photo)

This year we're approaching a milestone anniversary of her passing and I honestly can't believe it's been this long. I was feeling a little low about how there is so much more I want to know about her that I won't get to know. She endured more than I could ever know being raised in a poor, single-parent family, and growing her own family to the standard she wanted her children to achieve. As I thought about her, I realized that I had already encapsulated so much about her.

BRAVE: She ventured off with "Deddy" to move to another state. They packed up the kiddos and left everything and everyone they new and started a new chapter in life. Oh, and did I mention she was two weeks from delivering a baby at the time?!

TOUGH AS NAILS: You've gotta be tough to raise 8 kids (and some grands)! Early on they made a decision that she would be a stay at home mom. I probably would've lost my mind if I had to listen to all those kids all day, everyday. But she did it. She was the type to let things roll off her back. I've only seen her emotional once...mabe twice...in my entire life, seriously!

RESOURCEFUL: She had many talents and would use whatever she had. I remember her sewing; baking; stretching those dollars (I thought I was a super shopper but I have nothing on her); being a doctor (she had a knack for making remedies by mixing medicine and whatever else she could find in the house...lol...but we always got well)! She could feed a multitude. To this day I do not know how there was always food to go around. I have the hardest time trying to keep leftovers with just me (smile)! She drove our shuttle aka the minivan. She drove all of us all over the city to where we needed to be, all in the same day! There must have been more than 24 hours in a day back then!

RESILIENT: I've watched her withstand setbacks in life, bounce back from major illness and keep it moving like she never missed a beat. When she couldn't talk she found a way to communicate. She fought it out until the end.

There is so much more I could say about how she loved us all in her own unique way. She was truly one of a kind. I'm glad to have had her for a short time than to have not had her at all. I'm thankful for our time, for the lessons, taking on her traits, and most of all for the memories!

I love you always and forever, Ma!

Happy Women's History Month!