a remarkable woman indeed... you were a lucky boy to have her, RIPAnd, my dear Mom who has been gone some years now. It is nice thing to be able to think of her and have a big grin on my face as I do so.
Nice story. I liked it.
It was a very good and interesting read.
I thank you for it.
Priceless.
Thank you for the reflection.
I had an aunt who for a while lived in the Philippines. She had many elephants decorating her home. Must be a Filipino thing.
Great story..
our moms and dads....how we miss them...even when we get up there in age...
a remarkable woman indeed... you were a lucky boy to have her, RIPYour mom sounds like a wonderful lady. Thanks for sharing.
and that is why some people believe in reincarnation, and would call her an ‘old soul’.
A beautiful women, with the spiritual maturity many never reach in their lifetimes, ever.
I remember those elephants well. Many of my fellow military wives had them and I wanted one myself. It is just as well that I didn’t get it because nothing breakable survived my youngest son for long.
However, we did get a Sansui stereo and a couple of those large brass candlesticks that still exist to this day. Actually, our son the former “destroyer” is 45 yrs old and has the stereo.
Dad still has two ceramic elephants he got in Taiwan while traveling between deployments to Vietnam in the mid sixties.
He's also still got a four foot carved wooden statue that is very similar to the one you describe in your post, except we boys never destroyed his (are you freekin kidding me??).
He also had a custom stereo system built for him when we lived in Okinawa that still sits (in perfect operating condition) in his living room.
Sheesh.....that was almost a half century ago, now that I look at it. It's amazing that those relics of those times survived until today.
Awesome story - what a beautiful and wise mother you had - an absolute treasure!
Great story. Growing up I was a pain in the butt to my mom. All boy. And she would get into a fit over the littlest things it seemed.
But I do recall breaking a large vase of her mother’s that sat by the fireplace in the living room. The fireplace that had never been used. And the living room that was off limits to me.
I don’t recall much about it, but that she didn’t come down hard on me about it. I was amazed.
I fear that she is on her last legs now at the age of 95, with some pretty rapid developments in her failing health. (Five weeks ago she lived alone and drove herself to the doctor! Three days later she was at the ER, and lots of poking and exams and head-scratching since.). Now she needs a walker to get around and almost full-time care at her house.
I’ll have to bring up the story of the vase and get her take on it. She still remembers EVERYTHING (and I mean everything - names, places, etc.) which is great when it comes to talking with her and my kids about growing up, surviving the Depression, etc.
Although, being a great mom (recognized by the time I was twenty-something), she’ll probably feign “what vase?”
My mom is gone too now. Three years. Once in the late 60s when I took an R&R trip to Taipei, Taiwan, I ran across some hardwood octagonal end tables that had green marble inserts in the top...very, very well made.
I bought two and took them, had them crated on the spot and took them to the nearest A/FPO and shipped them home. I remember the guy telling me I’d just squeaked in under the wire “70lbs and 100inches Length/Girth”.
Long story short, about a month or two later I managed to wangle a call home to the nearest Air Base by my home and then get the operator to make an off base call. Got to speak to my mom, and the first thing she said was “I got those tables exactly on my birthday!” “The RFD mailman sure had a time getting them in and out of his station wagon.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I’d forgotten her birthday. I just bought them because I thought they were neat and I didn’t have anything special in mind for them.
WHICH BRINGS TO MIND ANOTHER STORY: (bear with me)
When I was a boy about 5-6 I remember bugging my mom relentlessly about going into the woods to find a turtle. I wanted her to take me to find a turtle. Well, one day she said “Come on, we’ll go turtle hunting.”
I remember that it was within 10 minutes, she excitedly shouted “There’s one!”. We took it home, me happy, and I kept it for a couple of days, and then we took it back.
A few months before she died, we were just sitting and talking about old things in the past, and we finally got around to the ‘turtle’....she told me that she’d been dreading taking me to find a turtle because she didn’t have a clue from Adam about hunting turtles. She said when she saw that turtle, it was like manna from heaven.
Since then, I’ve always wondered about these two events and what they mean and I think that my conclusion is that “God provides” not necessarily for me, but he did for my mom because I never knew a more loving, God fearing woman who always did right by those around her.
Lovely story and lovely Mom!
You were very fortunate.
very nice story. I’m a very ‘things happen for a reason’ kind of person. This seems to be one of those times...it was an amazing opportunity for your mother to reveal something about herself to you. Something maybe you were searching for but didn’t know how to go about it. (all subconsciously, of course...but I’m so hokey!)
Great story. Thanks for posting.
Thanks for sharing. My mom was like that too.