Long ago Days

On Feb. 3rd, 2000 Jack's Mom passed away. It's hard to believe that ten years has passed and so many events, holidays, birthdays and new Grandkiddos have happened and Nelda missed them. Atleast here in this world. I hope she's aware of all that's going on from her place beyond the veil. We miss her. Not everyone feels that way about their Mother-in-law, but I was very lucky to have her to help me grow as a new Mom, a wife to her oldest son, a young girl who moved away from her family and friends to live in Ashland, and a grieving daughter-in-law who was adjusting to life without my Dad who had passed away just before we moved here. We did many fun things together. She taught me alot about canning and cooking and we enjoyed many times of just "yakking" over a cup of coffee (for her!)She made a mean pitcher of sweet tea and when we joined the Church and didn't drink tea she switched to lemonade and to this day it's the best I've ever had. We picked delish peaches in the heat of August, and blueberries by the ton in the July sun. We planted a garden at the farm and tromped all over the back 40 to pick fresh blackberries and black raspberries. Her cobblers were so awesome!We made some pretty good grape juice and we learned that making applesauce in the Victorio Squeezo thingie didn't come out too great if the apples weren't peeled. We spit out peels every time we ate it that year! We got caught in a tornado on a raspberry picking excursion and laughed ourselves silly at ourselves as drowned rats! We would hop into the blue VW bus and she would put the pedal to the metal and off we'd go to some pick it yourself place...always an adventure.She loved the 4th of July and Christmas...my favs too, so that's maybe why we got along so well! She was a southern gal who liked to sit on the front porch in a rocker at the farm and watch all the hummingbirds that would come back every year to drink from the many feeders and hanging fushia plants. She had 4 boys and so do I and now I'm a Mother-in-law. I think it's different having boys who marry, then if you have a daughter. Girls seem to gravitate to their families more and we Moms of boys stand back a bit. This was not the case with us. I was lucky to have a second Mom here and hopefully she knows how much she was loved by me.I have many fond memories of Nelda Rae and I know that Jack could fill up a whole blog on her with his memories. So Mom, have a glass of sweet tea for us and go ahead and give a nice southern Rebel yell! See ya y'all...