Hard to imagine a world without Mom in it.

9/19/2016; San Antonio, Tx

Dec 13, 1919 - Aug 26, 2016

"When she is gone, there will be no one left who knows the whole of her life."  This quote, from a novel I was reading a month or so ago, resonated with me.  I knew that my Mom was approaching the end of her life and she was in my thoughts a lot.

Like many of her generation, Mom didn't share a lot of her feelings or her life - and as a child, I probably was too self-interested to ask.

With her death, there is no one left who knew my mother as a child, as a young woman, or a wife.  We have a few stories, but will remember mostly the mother, the grandmother, the great-grandmother.

1919 - Prohibition enacted, 48 states and Wyatt Earp

I know that my mom's father died when she was very young and when her mother remarried, my mom was sent away to a boarding school.  Knowing how timid my mother was, I imagine that this was very difficult for her.

I know she had a beautiful singing voice and, in college, would 'pitch hit' for other young women with less stellar voices when boys came to serenade them.  My mom would answer their songs from behind a curtain.

World traveler

Married to Dad, a petroleum geologist, ensured that we would travel quite a bit as my Dad was sent around the world to explore for oil.

They would live in Canada and Spain as well as many states in the US.  Each time, my Mom would be responsible for packing up the house and moving a family of 6 to a new house and making a new home for us.

My Dad's Girlfriend

Our Mom

Not much for winter sports, this may be the only picture I have of family at a ski lodge!

Near an oil rig in Canada

Some of my earliest memories are of spending summers at Lake Windemere in British Columbia.  We had a rustic cabin there, my Dad would work on it when he came for the weekends (staying at our house in Calgary during the work week).   The cabin had only a fireplace for heat, and cooking was over a wood stove.  When we first started spending summers there, we hauled water from a pump down the hill, and used an outhouse.

Lake Windemere, British Columbia

The riding stables at the Country Club in Madrid, Spain

Mom loved babies and children

Mom loved her grandchildren (4) and her great-grandchildren (7).  Here she is in Portland with her great-grand-daughter Anna.

Mom, on her 90th birthday.

Mom and my brother, Bob

Memorial Service at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio

Mom is interred with my Dad, the inscription will read "Together Forever"