Happy February BIrthday, Ladies!

February used to be our birthday month to celebrate the women in our lives.

Agnes was born on February 4, 1931.  She was the best mother to Gary and his siblings, a wonderful loving grandmother to the girls and Nick, and a sweet great-grandmother to Landon, Tessa, Cooper, and Owen.  Most importantly to me, she was such a fantastic mother-in-law, totally negating all of those nasty mother-in-law images and jokes that permeate FB and beyond.

Auntie Ann was born on February 14.  She was a special lady in all of our lives.  Because she and Bud had no children of their own, they 'adopted' all of us.  One thing I always remember is that she turned on the Christmas lights on her porch each morning in December so that I could see them on my drive to school.  That meant so much to me!

My Grandma Greta was born on February 17, 1903.  She was a guiding light for me when I was growing up.  She always told me that she loved me the best of the three granddaughters, but I am sure she told Greta and Sherry the same thing.  I love that she taught me how to sew on the old treadle sewing machine.  She taught me to make homemade pie crust with lard.  My first pies were made with that crust and the berries that I picked along the fence rows, elderberries of course!  She let me drive before I was 16 (and I turned on a red light at the intersection of Beloit-Snodes Road and Rt.62 before 'turning on red' was a thing).   She and I had many fun adventures when I stayed with her in the summers after we moved to Mt. Vernon.   She taughter me so much about baking and cooking and life itself.  She had her own checking account and her own property, separate from Grandpa's, which was really something considering it was in the 1960's and before separate checking accounts were a thing.  I miss her so much.

Then there is Mom.  She was born on February 21, 1926.  What can I say?  She was my mother.  She did make sure that we were fed every meal.  We had clean clothes to wear to school every day.  Our house was always clean.  Christmas was a BIG holiday and Greta and I received many gifts under the tree.  But the day-to-day life with Mom?  Not a good thing.  Arguments.  Physical abuse.  Verbal abuse.  I could go on and on about how rough our growing up years were.  I could re-hash all of the verbal abuse she inflicted on us, including Gary and Kent,  as adults. I could summarize the way she kept Greta and me apart for more than 15 years.  But doing that would be pointless now.  It is over.  I have dealt with it.  I am still in the process of putting it all behind me and moving on. 

What I will do is say that her last birthdays were good ones...at least we tried to make them so.  We organized a card shower for her 90th birthday.  Gary and I went to Wooster for the weekend of her birthday and the four of us tried to make the event very special for her.  Then in the summer we planned a large family and friends picnic at Freedlanders Park in Wooster to celebrate.  Good times were had---at least by everyone who attended.

So...Happy Birthday to Agnes, Ann, Grandma, and Mom. 

Happy Birthday.