Day 250 - Mother's Day

I lost my mother to alcoholism about 30 years ago but she's still in my thoughts every day.  She's the reason I love to cook, have an appreciation for classical music, love plants and gardening (although these genes really came from both grandmothers) and she inspired my love of birds.  My mother was genuinely kind to everyone, a trait my brother inherited.  I am truly thankful for some of the really special things I now possess that once belonged to her.  As I created this post today, I became painfully aware that I have very few pictures of her with us as children (I think my sister may have most of them) but what I do have are tons of old negatives that I need to organize and get printed.  Perhaps my mother was camera shy just like me.  At any rate, many of the photos here are pictures of pictures so the quality may not be great, but they mean a great deal to me.

My mother and her mother on their lawn - look how skinny my mother is!

My parents at my mother's college graduation - also when they got engaged.

I found this heartfelt letter my great grandfather (whom I knew) wrote to my mother several

 months before my sister was born.  Don't you just love the advice for my dad to "brace up".

Mum with my sister Lee

Four generations from left to right; great grandparents (Olmsteads),

grandparents (MacPhails), my sister Lee and my parents (Wendells)

My dad was a sentimental guy and he sent me a package before he died entitled

"memories are made of these".  This hospital bill for my birth was inside that package.

A page from the baby book my mother kept for me - yes, they called me Barby with a "y"

This was taken of me, my mother and sister right before Lee got married in 1974

My sister's wedding day

Washing dishes during a visit to Lee & John's first apartment

My mother's very worn childhood copy of Anne of Green Gables

Some of my mother's actual recipe cards in her perfect handwriting.  The

recipe for molasses doughnuts is from my great grandmother.  Mocha

cakes were a Canadian holiday tradition and I loved to help make them.

This locket was given to my grandmother, Dorothy Hannah Olmstead, when she was a child.  The dents in the locket are from my mother's teeth because she would put it in her mouth as a baby when my grandmother was carrying her around.  The locket is over 100 years old now and I wear it regularly.  As you can imagine, it means the world to me.