My mom

Friends have commented they think it's funny (not Ha ha funny, but odd) I had pictures and a 'goodbye' to my dog before having a post for my mom.

Maybe it's telling, but not hard to understand if you know anything at all about human relationships.

My relationship with, and love for, my mom is far more complex and ambivalent than the straightforward love with and for any animal.

I have no doubt there will be several posts over time about my Mom...

but for now, as I get ready for her Memorial service next weekend, I wanted to share some wonderful pictures I found while going through the albums I have or have inherited.

Pictures from earlier parts of her life:

She was a total Jersey girl, so it's not surprising that the very first picture of her was at the shore at 5 mos old... August '25

She was born in the middle of the "Roaring Twenties", so, of course, she was a flapper!

and delivered May Day baskets!

Here with her Dad
and her mom.
at 13

With her father and grandmother (his mother) on Easter Day 1945

The 'real' Jersey shore girl does NOT look like Snooki - never did!

A nurse at 19.
At her wedding with both sets of her grandparents (Maternal on the left; Paternal on the right)
A young mom of 3

Our favorite place...

This one cracks me up - a family so white it hurts my eyes - which must be why I have them closed! (Except for my beloved Native American grandmother far left!)

Nice to remember there WERE moments of fun!

At MY wedding in 1969

(oh my god, was I EVER that young?!)

I remember my mom as ALWAYS doing some 'handwork" - sewing, crochet, quilting, crewelwork... she was NEVER idle!
My parents with my sister and her second husband (1971)

I still have those ornaments - and the same furniture - and I thought they were antiques then!!
My mom, my boys, Nanny (my grandmother/moms mom), my brother, his wife and his son... back in my "Afro" days!
My mom and my sisters son, Sean
On our deck with my parents (far left), her parents/my grandparents next and then Tom and I in the background and Toms brother and wife with five of their (ultimately 6) children.

Memorial Day of 1976 - 6 months before my fathers death and the birth of my oldest son.

My Dads last birthday; despite several rounds of chemo - he NEVER lost his hair!

(Why do visions of Justin Bieber flit through my head?!!)

Hard to see this picture and realize my father died when he was only 51 - a full decade younger than I am now! He and my mom had been together since they were in junior high ... and had been through ALOT!

My mom as proud grandma with my oldest, Art Boy!
Does anyone else find looking through old photos as much fun - or as emotionally draining - as I do?

At least there ARE 'hard copies' to sit and look at... I wonder if folks who blog and post pictures of their kids continuously really think their kids will have the same technology available which will allow them to sit and look at it all on some screen decades from now.

I won't be around to find out - that much I know; but not much else.

That's it for today, folks!