Wednesday

Happy Birthday, Margaret!!! 106 years. 

 

This is one of my favorite pictures of Mother.  It would have been snapped by a photographer from The Ottumwa Courier on a Sunday afternoon in late February or early March of 1967.  Our basketball team had just finished 4th in the small school state tournament (out of 400+ teams).  Pretty nice smiles after having lost two straight, eh?  We were over-matched in the semi's, and just ran outta gas in the consolation game that third day.  In this pic, we were walking into the gym at Ottumwa Walsh High School for a greeting with our fans and classmates to celebrate the trophy. 

 

I would have been 18 years old at that time.  Mother was almost exactly 59...making her six years younger then than I am today.  She was pretty old to me at the time.  Hmmm.

 

Just like everything from that long ago, many of the specifics have faded.  But I do have clear memories of a few plays in those games, the excitement that we felt getting to play in Vet's Auditorium in Des Moines, and then the sheer joy of winning our first game against a previously undefeated team.  You can see in Mother's expression the joy that she felt for our success.

 

Mother lived almost another 34 years from that day.  She lived to see all of her kids graduate from college, marry and have 19 kids of their own.  She and Daddy eventually built that house that he always said he would put in that field across the county road.  They travelled the world, sold the milking cows, kept praying for us all, and saw our families achieve wonderful things. 

 

I truly believe that so much of what we have is the result of Mother and Daddy teaching us the meaning of family, sacrifice and love.  Which is interesting as Mother was certainly not a touchy-feely person.  But the fruit of her actions on teaching us how to live and treat people has now spanned to another generation (or two?).

 

Obviously, Margaret and I spent a lot of time together as her days dwindled.  It was a challenging time, but I have since considered those months to be her last gift to me.  I am so grateful that I had the privilege to be with her at that time.  I've never figured out why, but that experience enabled me to subsequently participate in The Game of Life with a much more honest approach, and with a lot less worry about the noise that might come from the Chorus.  A day doesn't go by that I don't have something come up that brings her into my thoughts.

 

Well.  I really hadn't meant to get sappy.  But she was a great lady.  We are all fortunate that we hit the Margaret Lottery.

 

Celebrate her today!

 

BCOT

 

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