My world has changed

My world has changed. My cherished 96 year old mother has passed away. After quite a long battle with dementia, a-Fib and congestive heart failure, my mother left this world on my husband and my 38th wedding anniversary. Hubby and I went out to dinner and I had just gone to bed when I got the call. She had been bedridden for 21 months. It is a blessing that she passed. She had been existing, not living.

I have many, many years of happy memories. My mother raised me alone as my father died when I was a toddler.

 She also supported her mother until she died when I was in college. My mom took us on trips to Williamsburg, VA almost evey summer. She drove us to a vacation at Walt Disney World the first year it opened. She was hard working and independent. 

She walked me down the aisle when I married my Hubby.

My mom was an avid gardener. She loved rose bushes, perennials and "snowball bushes" (hydrangea). Her yard had several hydrangeas, azaleas, astilbe, and cone flowers as well as many others. 

Mom loved Nicolas Sparks books. I think she had almost every one of them. In the past few years though she bought them, but was unable to read them as she couldn't follow the story or remember the characters. Growing up she completed puzzles with me and played board games. Many of those board games she played with her grandchildren also.

In her retirement, she babysat my children and often went shopping with us. Every other week we had Sunday dinner with her for many, many years.

 She went on several bus trips with a cousin and some girl friends. Some of the places they went to were Maine, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. They had loads of fun and lots of laughs.

 She also learned to quilt through a church group run by resident nuns. She hand sewed and quilted all of her projects.

These are some blocks from her Sunbonnet Sue quilt.

You may remember that I finished quilting the pink baby quilt.

I still need to quilt the Overall Sam quilt that she made.

Mom made several table runners and a set of placemats.

 She knitted an afghan for each of my children and a sweater for me. This was the afghan she knitted for my daughter.

She won a blue ribbon at the local fair for an Irish knit afgan that she made for herself.

 She was taught to knit in the back of every stitch, so it was a challenge for me to help if she made a mistake. She often knit preemie hats that were donated to hospitals through our church.

Every Christmas she made stuffed clam appetizers from a recipe that I still use. She also made her mother's Sour Cream Coffee cake and Yorkshire pudding. She wasn't known for her cooking, but she served us a good dinner each and every night. Sometimes when she came home from work she enjoyed a Manhattan cocktail made with Jack Daniels. 

I miss my mom terribly as we hadn't been able to do much together since before the pandemic. I have been grieving the loss of our outings together for quite some time.

As an only child, I now have the task of clearing out and selling her home as well as all the other miscellaneous tasks that come with a passing. 

Please keep my family in your thoughts and prayers. 

Thanks for stopping by!