"(Everybody Likes) My Mother" - Stan Breckenridge, 1999

(First off, I have to admit that I'm cheating a bit -- although this post is dated the 15th of February, I'm actually writing it on Monday the 18th while in Singapore. I ran out of time last Friday to write it on the actual day. I feel pretty sure you'll all excuse me, right?)

Today, the 15th of February 2008, would have been my mother's 87th birthday, had she lived beyond 2001. She died not long after her 80th birthday, after falling and breaking her hip a year earlier.

I like the song I found as the title of this entry. I never met anyone who didn't like my mother. She was a gracious, charming woman. Sadly, she was also self-conciously shy. But over the years, she learned to overcome that a bit. She was a "lady" in the true sense of the word. I miss her very much.

I tried to find a nice digital image of Mother to post. I couldn't easily find one. So, even though the quality is only fair, I photographed a couple of nice framed photos to post here.




(Click on either photo for a full-sized version.)
From left to right, this is my mother, my grandmother Mattie (we all called her Nanny...she died in 1995), and Aunt Blanche (mother's sister). Of all of the photos I've taken during my life, this is one of my all-time favorites. It was taken on my parents' patio in Houston, some time around 1980 (I think)!







And this photo, taken by my friend Clara, is of my mother and me back in 1999. This one was taken at my mother's apartment in Houston, at a retirement community called The Terrace.


Happy Birthday, Montie...and rest in peace.

Janet