These were the hardest and saddest years for Mom. How was she to go on? After all those years of being a housewife and mother, she had to find work to help support the family. She got a job making salads for the salad bar at Hill Top House, a restaurant owned by old friends. She sold Avon. She sold Tupperware.
She soon felt she had lost control of her children. Without help of Daddy to back her authority, her children thought she had not the right to tell them what to do and were going wrong directions.
Tammy, who has always been Mom's baby, was sent to live with LaVerna's family for her freshman year of High School. The separation was hard on both Mother and Daughter. Tammy came home with a new found respect for Mom and things went better for them.
Kenny was a rebellious enough teenager to move into a big card board box in the back yard of his 16 year old future wife's home. Mom could not understand how to handle these teenage problems. Without Dad there everyone was in turmoil.
The best thing about teenagers is that they soon grow up. That is part of the "Great Plan." Teenagers have to enter a period of time where the are so obnoxious parents are glad to send them off into the world. If they remained as sweet as they were as toddlers, how could a mother's heart ever stand the pain of watching them leave home as adults.
Now that we are all old enough to understand life, we appreciated and love Mom so much more for all the sacrifices she made and for the grit and courage it took to carry on.
I am even thankful for her friend Sandy who cam along to give moral support and tell her she was a person.... not just a Mother.
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