My Mother

When my mother was 25 I was 6.  I distinctly remember that she had colored her hair red.  When the sisters at church asked her why she did that, her answer was that she would never be "brown" again.  That bit of sarcasm was not lost on me.

As we all know, she actually went back to her natural color and for the rest of her life, railed against any woman who colors her hair.  I never got it.  I mean, if you don't want to do it, don't; leave everyone else alone.  She especially disliked "older" women who continued to color their hair long after their faces would have looked better with a lighter color.  Wrinkles just seem a little mitigated by lighter colored hair--maybe nature has the right idea after all.  My own pet peeve is when women who have long-since been gray but continue to color their hair say, "My real hair color is ___."   I mean, c'mon, the real color is what it comes out at the roots, isn't it.

Just one of the pieces of craziness I brought into my generation from my mother's.

When she was about to get married to Daddy, she was a little "giddy".  Looking back, it's really rather wonderful to think about it.

My mother fought overweight her whole life.  I have memories of her very heavy and very trim.  She had a terrible self-image and even when she weighed only a little over 100 pounds, still talked about her big fat butt. Too bad.  Her mother was trim her whole life, and mother unfortunately took after her father's sister, Aunt Lucille.  Large butt...

I miss my mother.  We visited often in the last years, but I still miss her.