A day to remember.... Celebrating my Mom

It was 2 years ago today that my Mom passed away from breast cancer.  The saddest day of my entire life.  I'd been through the death of my aunts and uncles and my grandma's and grandpas, but nothing hits you like the death of your Mom.  It doesn't seem like two years.  I miss her terribly.

This picture was taken the day of my Uncle Jim's memorial in May of 2009.  My Aunt Molly (left) lost her husband of 50 years, my Mom in the middle and Aunt June on the right.  Believe it or not, this day was not as sad as it could have been.  The smiles on their faces are not fake or forced.  I know, I was there and I took the picture.  Just minutes before they were laughing and acting silly.

To most of you, you would say how can that be? Well, it's because we all share a wonderful hope of a Biblical promise of a resurrection to life on a peaceful new earth, free of sorrow, sickness and death.  So, yes, while we shed tears of sorrow that day, our faith in this hope made it bearable and as if it will be a short time till we will be re-united.  This hope my Mom and family share, and this hope is especially meaningful today as I remember my Mom.

But instead of getting all sad and teary eyed (like I am now....) let me switch gears and celebrate a fun time that happened when I was in 10th grade and what lead me down the path of being a creative person and brought me where I am today...

See this ring?...it's beautiful...it's a yellow diamond.  Priceless? no, it's valued at $600,000 - that's six hundred THOUSAND dollars.  I had it on for a brief few minutes to admire....but ...it has a price....

This jewelry?  valueless by monetary standards. In fact at a flea market it might only bring a couple of dollars, but it is in fact priceless to me and worth much more than the sparkly ring above...

When we moved to Branson in 1979, my Mom learned how to china paint and she joined an art guild, the Table Rock Art Guild to be exact.  Throughout the year, she would paint china plates, trinket boxes and jewelry and sell them at various locations and shows around the Branson area.

Mom's handwriting was ....well...not that pretty, (sorry Mom - but she knew that), so I would write all the phrases like "someone loves you, I love you" ...and so on inside the trinket boxes.  We would collaborate on our artwork.  

The summer of my 10th grade year - around 1982, we participated in a Co-op show.  We displayed Mom's pieces at the Dewey Short visitors center near the Table Rock Dam in Branson, MO.  Mom sold her pieces and I learned about snakes.  It was a fun place to be during the summer.  I learned enough about snakes to get them out when bus tours would come through and educate people on their benefits to the eco-system.  Generally this sent people running the opposite direction of me and directly into the path of Mom's show...so I suppose this was a good thing.

We made enough money that summer to pay our way to California later that year to go see our relatives - Aunt Molly and Aunt June and all my cousins.  It was so rewarding to see our hard work of the summer pay off in a vacation.  It was something we did together and I'll never forget that.

So as you can tell when I look at those pieces today, I don't see there dollar value, I see lots of fun and great memories with my mom....priceless!

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