Norma Jean Hardin, my mom. Mom, this message is for you…
My mom has the most beautiful eyes, green with some blue.
I can remember my mom taking me, Tam and Jim to the zoo, the park, and of course church – dressed up all a like (sorry for the red velvet outfits Jim LOL). We had fun and we played hard, really hard – bicycles on birthdays, there was a sand box in there somewhere, we got dirty – mom let us, she didn’t care if she had to wash the dirt out or get grass stains out of our clothes – she was fun like that. When you are a kid you don’t know how fun your mom is, you don’t realize that she does not complain about the dirty clothes, cooking every meal, washing the dishes so we can play, sewing clothes, sweeping and mopping – you just get to be. Mom thanks for letting us just BE.
My mom sewed beautiful dresses for me for the prom and many other dances, I still have one of them – sadly the others were destroyed by mold in Florida :{ David, my husband always loved the dresses; our favorite one I think was the Gone With The Wind curtain dress – it was floor length, green velvet with white lace trim, fitted top, with a flowing skirt on bottom. My mom dress me up like I was a princess – I felt like one too. Thanks mom for the loving devotion, for the sewing time…
My mom decided to learn how to redo furniture – so we had chairs with new covers on them. She also did this antiquing thing with wood and we had some really colorful dressers, chairs, etc. – turquoise was one I recall and there was red too. She also did this really cool tie-dyed sheet that she framed and hung on the wall in my sisters room. We never got bored with our rooms, she could always find a way to recreate them! Thanks mom for the creativity…
I have to mention how clean my mom was – this just has to be said. When we got old enough to be helpful, mom had us clean stuff – sure we did the dishes and the floors, but other stuff too… like the books, oh my goodness we had BOOKS – and mom thought that they were dust collectors, so every now and then we would have to take each book off the shelf and dust off… sure the book shelf, but also the book edges, the outside covers AND the inside covers! Today I must admit that I think books are supposed to collect dust, that gives them the aged look, I am thinking that makes them more valuable, RIGHT?!?! Mom thanks for making us clean the books…
Oh and mentioning cleaning… mom had this thing about the cars being clean, even in the winter in Erie, PA. I have to tell this one, we all still get a kick out of this one, except maybe dad, who couldn’t get the doors open. You know in the North during winter there is lots of snow and with snow comes the road dirt (salt, cinders, whatever they are using to keep the roads safe) – so mom decided to wash the car in the garage (since it was 20 degrees outside, that seemed logical). The car looked great! We loved it cause we had an instant ice rink in the garage – wahoo! (Sorry about the doors dad – frozen shut:) Thanks mom for the innovated ways of creating more fun…
My brother, Jim got a bike for Christmas one year and there was too much snow for him to ride outside so he rode around the basement, mom just moved over as she was folding clothes. She just smiled, not caring that he was leaving tire tracks on her painted floor (she painted it) that she would have to clean off (cause she just didn’t like messes like that). When my brother Jim (who wanted to be the next Evil Kenevil stunt guy extraordinaire), would get hurt mom would take him to the hospital to be patched up – and he had lots of incidences; flew over the handle bars on his bike going over a ramp and broke his two front teeth, fell out of a tree and broke his arm… okay I won’t tell the whole list What I can see now is that mom did not discourage Jim from becoming a stunt guy, it was his dream and she let him have it. Thanks mom for allowing us to dream…
There is so much I could say about my mom, but I must go for now, as it is time for me to go and worship my God. Another thing that mom made sure we knew was the love of God – she took us to church and taught us the Bible, giving us a firm foundation for life. Thank you mom for teaching us about God and His Son, Jesus Christ…
I love you mom!
PS I can’t forget the Gumbo meals we had together! That was so much fun to make. Thanks for the key to your house and making it my home on the road – even if BooBoo didn’t want to share you