What Mama Wants, Mama gets

She was quietly proud of all us kids. We wanted to excel in life so she could be proud of us and not have to ever hear again --- "Here comes Melba and her brats, don't answer the door." her children and grandchildren's accomplishments made her last twenty years feel like all that work was worth her years of hard labor.

We all wanted to spoil her to the best of our abilities. Elvin always said, "What ever my Mama wants, I'll try to see she gets it."  She bragged to her friends, "I have 13 kids and we are best friends. If I wanted a Cadillac and asked them for it, they'd get it for me." Fortunately, she never wanted a Cadillac.

Mom slowed down her travels the last year and half of her life. After Wayne, one of the twins, was killed in an auto accident in 1988, I saw a change in her pattern. She didn't want to see he children go first. she could hardly make herself drive over the new highway Wayne had helped build between Las Vegas and Bull Head City just before his death.

She took up the occupation of worrying. I told her to quit that. I had always bragged about her in Relief Society when I taught my Family Education lessons. I told everyone how my mother was my hero. She would take care of the problems she could handle and not worry about thing she couldn't change. i said, "Don't make a liar out of me now, after all these years." She laughed. It always surprised her to find just how wise we children found her to be.

Daddy always had jobs that required him to be up at four or five in the mornings. Mom was always there to fix his breakfast and pack a lunch. Then they would sit around the table laughing and talking until he left, a comforting sound to sleeping children. The memories of the smell of bacon and coffee in early hours still makes me homesick.

Although it had bee years since Daddy died and the last child moved out, Mom found herself still waking up early. When the sun went down she found herself expecting someone to come home. She missed her early morning talks and tasks.

She then was living in Bullhead City across the river from the boom town of Laughlin. to our surprise she began taking the ferry across the Colorado River from Arizona to the Nevada side to Sam's Town Casino. There she enjoyed an Early Bird  ninety nine cent breakfast and game of Bingo. She was happy to finally find something she could do other that sit around feeling gloom and doom.