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Happy Mother’s Day
I took my mother for granted. I thought she would always be here. Her mother lived to be 97, so why wouldn’t her mother’s daughter? My mother lived 25 years less than my grandmother and her death hit me hard. It hit us all hard. Fifteen years ago tomorrow, Mother’s Day. I lived in a grievous fog and thought depression and sadness were my new normal. Until they weren’t. Two years later I realized the veil had slowly lifted, although I didn’t recognize when. It finally felt good to remember happy times and her ridiculous “Rubyisms” without that gut-wrenching longing for her. This Mother’s Day, I am grateful for a…
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Happy Birthday, Grandma
My maternal grandmother, Emma Bell Lane, was the last baby born to David W. and Callie Sawyer Lane in Crawfordsville, Arkansas, on February 9, 1898. She was baby sister to Elmer and Frankie. She would be 121 years old today, and my great grandmother, her mother, passed 119 years ago yesterday and was buried the next, on my grandmother’s second birthday. The following letter was handwritten by her father, my great grandfather, to his sister and brother-in-law, T.S. (Tom) and Minerva (Minnie) Frizzell, during a devastating period in his life. I have left spelling and punctuation as accurate and true to his hand as possible: Crawfordville Ark 3=11=1900 Dear Sister.…
