Happy Mother's Day!

Let's face the truth:  none of us would be here without our mother.  So, just to be a female romantic, here are photos of my mother, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, etc.....

 Mom:  Millie Johnson Nocks (above and below)

Maternal Grandmother:  Aleda Peterson Johnson

Maternal Great-grandmother:  Minnie Tarr Peterson

Maternal Great-grandmother:  Hannah Olesdatter Johansson

Maternal Great-great-grandmother: Mary Catherine Connor Tarr

*****

Paternal Grandmother:  Grace P. Lancaster Nocks

Paternal Great-grandmother:  Julia Sophia Mobley Lancaster

Paternal Great-great-grandmother: Martha Elizabeth Busey Nocks

Paternal Great-great-great-grandmother (center, seated, in black)

Climena Cleveland Nocks

Paternal Great-great-great-great-grandmother (seated, second from left):

Lucy Hall Nocks

28 January 2018

Today is my Mom's birthday.  Were she still here, she'd be 97 years old.  She was the second child born to a man with dual citizenship (American and Swedish), who was a net mender and waterman, and the first born daughter of people who were generations long Chincoteaguers, with the exception of the Danish grandfather.  Mom was a born and raised Teaguer, but was always in love with the Old West of America.
    We always spoke on her birthday, wherever I was located... England, Colorado, Florida.  We were speaking on the telephone, and both of us were watching the launch of the space shuttle Challenger, when it exploded.  We had no words to convey our feelings of loss to each other....  Mom was always there for me.  She did worry a lot of my friends, because she wore bifocals, and, if she was near a person, she had a tendency to "look down her nose" at people, so she could see them clearly.  A lot of my friends thought that she was showing dislike, and I had to explain that she was just trying to see them clearly...
    We had great adventures together.  Dad had always said he was taking her to England to see the Crown jewels when he retired.  Well, Dad died before he could retire, so Mom and I went to look at the Crown jewels together.  We rented a car and drove through England, visiting Newmarket, the home of English horse racing.  We saw plays, went to Windsor Castle, went to the Royal Mews and saw the Gold Coach, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in book stores and shops.  We went to FanFare in Nashville, Tennessee, and Mom got to meet Loretta Lynn, while I got a kiss from Marty Robbins; and we went to the Grand Ole Opry and Opryland Park.   I also took her horse racing in Delaware, where she had a blast.  My sister Kathy took her to Alaska, and on several cruises.
   Unfortunately, a stroke, followed by Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, dulled her interest in outside things.  She stopped reading, but loved to watch old movies and television shows.  She never ceased in her love of Raymond Burr's portrayal of Perry Mason.  She would slip from the present to the past in a heartbeat, and it was, occasionally, difficult to follow her time periods... 
    She passed away in her sleep, during an afternoon nap, a few months before she would turn 81...  It was the same way that Dad went, peacefully, in sleep in mid-afternoon.  I hope I go that way, too.
   I love you, Mom!!!

Mom's Birthday

If my Mother were still alive, she'd be 92 years old today, and that just doesn't seem possible.  It is true, however, even if my mind doesn't want to stretch time back that far.  Dad would turn 90 in March.  It just doesn't seem right, somehow.  I can easily accept the fact that I'm 56, heading for 57 now; but Mom and Dad being that age? No way!  My first real recollection of their faces comes from when I was four years old and we were living in Kingsville, Texas; Dad was still in the Navy, and every two weeks he took Kathy, my sister, and I to ride horseback at King's Ranch Livery stable.  Kathy rode a beautiful bay mare named Cricket, and I rode an old-timer whose name was White Cloud.  Kathy and the other kids would walk, jog and lope around this huge field - since I was so small, and was sitting on a 16-hand horse, White Cloud just sort of ambled about - he went where I wanted to go, because I knew about reining, and he was an old cow horse, but we walked slowly. Everywhere.  We just walked.  One day, I caught White Cloud in the flank with a corn stalk, and he crow hopped a little bit.  I was ecstatic!  We had done something other than walk! I looked back toward my parents, and Mom's face was blue-white, while Dad was laughing hard with a red face.  Mom was scared that I'd fall off, and Dad was laughing because I was laughing. ....
   Mom gave me life, and taught me to love books and reading.  She inspired me with tales of hardship of early Chincoteaguers, and things she could easily remember, as the Island was so isolated.  She planted the seed for love of knowledge of the past, for the love of art work and creative sewing.  She was never an epicurean, but she definitely taught me how to cook and bake.  I was always amazed to hear what simple, small things brought her pleasure when she was a child - and now I find that I find those same things endearing and heart-warming.  Mom taught me to love totally, and to forgive those that hurt me, and to give as generously as I am able to good causes and things I believe in.
  Here's to Mildred Louise Johnson Nocks, a woman who was good, in every sense of the word.