Loveletter to Mom

Dear Mom...
I never quite understood when you used to tell me how much you missed picking up the phone and talking to your Mom.  I wasn't able to understand because you can't understand until the day you lose your Mom.  It doesn't matter how old you are, the loss is always there.

I like to say that your Mom is always with you in your mind and your heart.  My mind remembers all of the nights playing your version of gin rummy until Dad came home from working graveyard.  Your special type of humor showing up while you talked on the CB radio or with your close friends.  I remember watching you play out in the yard until you almost collapsed with exhaustion only to get up the next day and do the same thing.  It was something else to watch you with that first computer and those that followed.  You taught yourself word processing, spreadsheets, databases and publishing. My mind still sees you sitting at the piano playing and singing song after song with the door open.  People walking along the road used to stop and listen.  I can still see you singing and filling up the church with your voice.  I can hear your laughter and jokes and even your irritation.  Anything that you did, you did it to the best of your ability.  You lived your life with passion, humor and love for your family.  There are a lifetime of memories that play in my head. They are wonderful gifts for our family to always treasure.


I miss laying my head down on your chest and feeling your arms around me.  You left a permanent impression on so many lives from your family to friends.  So many have a story to tell about something you said or did.  So, I hope that you are enjoying your Mother's day this weekend with all the women that meant so much to you during your lifetime.  I sure miss them all...but most of all, I miss you!     Happy Mother's Day!

Grandpa Frank & Old Cars

During the past year, I have been working on getting some of my grandmother's negatives scanned.  Many of them were from the 1930's and 40's.  There are many great familiar photos but much better quality.    There are two pictures of Grandpa Frank in an old car.  One is the familiar one of ol' 77 and the other one much earlier.

Sometimes I think that cars become a character in our own history.  My Dad can probably tell you every car he has ever had...come to think of if, so can I.  However, I don't have quite as varied of a history.  One of the best finds in my grandmother's negatives was an old picture that I suspect was taken about 1930.  Dad remembers his father telling him that he worked delivering coal for quite a while.  I believe that the other individual in the photo is a cousin.  Someone else would have to tell my the vintage of the car.  Even my Dad isn't sure.  My Grandpa Frank is in the driver's seat and I am sure that this was taken in Dunn Center, ND

It was a series of happy circumstances that my Grandpa ended up on Hatter Creek.  He was in the CCC's (Civilian Conservation Corps) and traveled from North Dakota to Arkansas with a side trip to New Orleans.  Grandpa ended up coming up north with a friend.  Went out on a double date with his friend and Grandpa ended up with his friend's date, my grandmother.  (No hard feels as they remained friends)  My grandmother was the oldest daughter in a family that was shortly going to be 10.  On the night her youngest brother was born (4 July 1939) - my grandparents got engaged.  As the story goes, Grandma's younger brother, John Bernard Gage (known to family as Bun) fixed up a car to race in the Tin Lizzy Derby in Lewiston, ID.  However, he wasn't old enough to drive the car yet as he was not 18 as yet.  So, he convinced his sister's fiance to race his car.  It is probably one of my favorite pictures of my grandfather.   I love the phone and the one below was also taken by my grandmother in August of 1939. 

My grandparents married a few months later in October.  They began their young married life driving across Montana to my Grandfather's home in Dunn Center,ND.  As my Dad tells the story, the 1927 Chevy through a rod and Grandpa had to try to put it back together out in the middle of nowhere.  

I love this photo of the younger couple...probably just married and getting ready to start their life together.  They had 35 years together and shared five children and 18 grandchildren.  Grandpa died at the age of 60 and Grandma survived him by another 35 years.