MAMA LLAMA? No, BETTY MAMA ! ;)

One of my daughter’s favorite books at night for bed for me to read to her was “IS YOUR MAMA A LLAMA?”.  It points to all the different little animals and the differences in their mommies.

Differences are many when you talk about what and how mothers raise their children.  Mothers always wear so many hats while they’re learning to be a “Mom.” 

My mother loved to wear hats…figuratively and literally.  Pill boxes were the first type hat I remember seeing my Mother wear…it was black and had a small black netting that draped across the front of her forehead.  She wore it to church with her pretty, black Audrey-Hepburn-looking suit, along with her gloves, pumps and nylons (yea, the real kind with the garter belt). 

As my sister and I grew her hats shifted daily as she wore a chauffeur’s cap, a maid’s crown, a chef’s hat, a seamstress bandana, a teacher’s ruler in her pocket, a gardener’s apron, a room mother’s tag, many cheerleader’s pompoms, many band-aid sun visors and her healing nurse’s cap.  All these services she provided to us, my Daddy, my classmates, our neighbors, a volume of church family, our grandparents and anyone else she came in contact with in our community.  She has always been a server, never complaining about how much to help…she just jumped right in where ever she saw a need.

Her hat rack remains full even to this day even at the age of  79…after we’ve grown up, my father passed along with all the grandparents…she’s still giving where she sees need in her church and community.  She cooks more throughout the week than I do, plays piano for their choir and church services, hand sews quilts for family members, feeds anyone helping on their farm, decorates the house with a Christmas tree in every room and still cuts the grass while tending the flowers.

I hope my hat rack is still full when I get to be her    age…TODAY’s her birthday and I just wanted to share her with you, too.  Happy Birthday, Mother