"I'm as Good as Anyone Else!"

Mom met a soul mate there of her age. He was and earl riser and lonely too. He eventually moved in with her. They were both in their seventies, She told us kids not to worry, They were both too old to do anything they shouldn't. There were such a cute couple,, and good for each other. They laughed a lot and played Bingo. He was Mel and she was Melba.

They "went to work" each morning. (That was what they called playing Bingo.) They allotted just so much of their monthly incomes to spend each day. If they won they shared and if they lost they went home. Mom kept careful track of her winnings and losses and saw to it that she broke even each month so as not to get in trouble with gambling.

She kept zip lock baggies in her purse to take home the food she had too much of at lunch so there was always something good left for dinner.

They had many elderly good friends to meet each morning. Mom and Mel were up at 4:30 and on the move. She was having the time of her life! If anyone came to visit they also had to be ready to play a game of Bingo with her as her work would not wait.

Mom said another of her and Mel's jobs was to listen to each other sleep. Mel was there for her that Sunday morning and awoke when her breathing pattern changed and stopped.

Elvin had be down Saturday, June 9, 1990, and had a good visit. He had gone to "work" with the pair and Mom won $60 dollars at Bingo. Then Elvin drove back to his home in Pahrump.

Mom called Kathryn in the early evening worrying about storms back in Kansas the TV news had been reporting, hoping she wasn't getting flooded out.

Mom had developed an upset stomach earlier in the day that wouldn't go away and retired to bed an hour earlier than usual. We know now she was having a heart attack... too late.  At 3:30 in the morning her sweet hear stopped beating. Mel was there listening bu could not help.

I know it is not rational but I have found to forgive Mel for his lack of knowledge of basic CPR! Jimmy and I have taken him home with us. He lives in his motor home in our front yard where Jimmy has made a special place for him. My mother would have wanted us to.

We laid her to rest in St. George beside Daddy in the place she had prepared for them both. She and all those other Moss Backs, together again, as equals.

During her 77 years, Mom got to see all the progress from the horse and buggy to seeing men land on the moon. She was there for the inventions of radio, television, portable telephones, answering machines, and microwave ovens. She told us when she was a little girl with outdoor toilets, she had a can-o-pee under her bed. She had to laugh when her daughter begged her for a con-o-py over her bed.

We didn't know until we were old enough to understand, Mom had a bit of inferiority complex and would let small mined people hurt her.

In St. George she took us kids to Church one time when Jeff was the baby. We were not in regular attendance on Sundays since we seldom had transportation.

Daddy smoked cigarettes. The scent of smoke must have clung to out clothes. A lady in front of us was seen to sniff the air then remark loudly to the person next to her, "People who smoke should stay home."

It was a rare instance when we were able to get Mom out to Church  again. She usually say to it we older children took the younger ones and walked the two miles as often as possible.

One day Mom said she did n;t like to go to the classes in Sunday School. "Every time I go the teacher gives the lesson and stares straight at me. I don't have to go and be treated like that."

"That is how you and I differ, Mom," I told her. When I go to class I think the teacher is talking to those around me."

Sometime after Daddy died and Mom was feeling SO low, she went to her doctor for a check up. When she walked into his office he looked at her and said, "How are you today, Mrs. Laub?"

Sometimes, she thought, people deliberately slurred the two words and called her "Mrs. Slobb", She looked the doctor in the eyes and said, "I'm as Good as anyone else!" The doctor had a good laugh and she and he became fast friends.

On day one of her younger sons asked her how old she was, Mom told him, "See those hills out there? I remember when they rose out of the ground like loaves of bread." He went to school and reported to class that his mother was as old as the hills.

He felt betrayed when they laughed at him. Had Mom known it was an assignment to interview a parent for home work she'd have been more careful. From then on we were all proud to brag that our mother was as old as the hills.

My mom told me once. "Do you know what Happiness is? It is when you Eleventh child calls you on Mother's day and says Thank you for not having an abortion".

There are those  who thing Mom should have been at Church instead of playing Bingo. Maybe so. I personally think God understood and loved this women who had problems of almost 100 children and grandchildren to worry after. I vote with Him ---- she did a real good!