I FORGOT AND SO ASHAMED....

I pick up a little book, dated 1995.

A book I heard about years ago from Pastor Sandy Sterban at Cornerstone Church
in Madison, Tennessee.
This church and Sandy spoke in a way that my thirsty soul and broken heart needed.

I look through the pages, most underlined and notes by this one.  I come to February 10th
17 years ago and read the words that my mother passed away on that day.  It was a bitter cold
and windy snow flake day for the graveside service with a closed casket.

So ashamed that I had forgotten and so many memories have been arriving all day.
I was born in my grandmother's bed to my 18 year old mother.
Good times were few and far between as this one born at the end of the depression and no work
was to be found for my father.  They headed to Michigan where my growing up years were
spent and was able to return to Tennessee after I married.
Will leave it at that as so many stories and could not have made it without my
much loved paternal grandmother who brought me back to Tennessee during the summer
months from the huge apartment building where not a blade of grass could be seen.
Guess this is the reason I have loved my nature retreat over the years....

I still miss my mother
and think we always do when we lose them

My mother at 17 and father at 22 on their wedding day - 4 weeks after they had met :)
told her mother that if she did not sign for them to be married they would run away :)
A picture of my mother and her sister at a young age
Look at those dresses :)