My Mom

I need to beg your indulgence today, as I decided to do a brief (?) tribute to my wonderful mother (Joan)  who passed away unexpectedly just over a week ago. She lived to be 90 years old, and still went to the gym six days a week. She was mentally sharp, had a comfortable home, and four kids who loved her. We should all be so fortunate. Today's post is more for me than for anybody else, but I know you will forgive me. I'd scanned a bunch of photos for her 90th birthday, and chose a dozen.

Here she is at around age two (I guess), with my grandparents in their yard in Westwood, Los Angeles (where my mom was born). I'd asked my mom if that house was still there, and she said that it had been torn down, replaced by apartments or condos.

Now it's about two years later, and Joanie is in Wisconsin visiting her cousins. What is that dog, a Cocker Spaniel?  I think my mom looks pretty cute here.

If Joanie was four or five years old in this next picture, then this has to be around 1939 or 1940. Color photography was uncommon at the time. She's standing in her grandmother's garden in Aurora, Illinois.

By the time this photo was taken, my grandma and grandpa had moved to Encino, which, at the time, was "the sticks". Hillsides and farmland. At some point she owned a horse, which she took good care of, getting up in the dark to muck out the little stable, feed it, and, I don't know, whatever else you do to take care of a horse. Sing it a song? The other girl is her lifelong friend Tuppie (her nickname, short for "tuppence").

I remember my mom telling me that this photo was taken at her high school, not long before she was to move away from home to go to the University of Colorado in Boulder. 

I believe this one was taken as Joan moved into the sorority house in Boulder, she belonged to Gamma Phi Beta. The photo has a professional look to it (I guess). My mom remained friends with some of her sorority sisters for decades.

Here she is on a date with the man who she would marry (my dad, of course). She met him on a blind date; Joan was in LA to visit her parents, and my dad was going to USC. It looks like they were at a fancy restaurant, I wish I knew which one.

They were wed in 1958, and remained married for over 50 years, until my dad's passing. Years later, my sister got married in the same dress that my mom is wearing here.

Some of you have seen this picture before; my mom is holding baby me - I was the second of four children.

Joan was such a fun mother, she loved arts and crafts, and was always trying new stuff, from stained glass to mosaics, origami to cake decorating, and she loved collecting seashells, minerals, beads from around the word, old buttons, ethnic artifacts, antique German marbles, and too many other things to mention. She's holding a cake with my sister's name on it, maybe for a birthday, though it doesn't look like the cakes she typically made. Maybe my sister helped? I thought that the time of year was wrong (based on the dried ears of Indian Corn hanging from the cupboard) but some familiar Christmas decorations are hanging from the chandelier to the left, and that would be about right.

I'm behind my mom (sorry I am eclipsed) in my cool velour shirt, probably a Hang Ten shirt.

Here's my mom and dad in my grandmother's backyard in Encino - I would guess that this is from around 1995. The two of them look pretty happy.

And finally, a photo that I took myself in 2017, when my mom, brother, and I took a trip up to the Eastern Sierras. Near the town of Lone Pine is an amazing area called the Alabama Hills famous for its unusual rock formations. It was incredible to be there in April when there was not one other person around.

Well, that's it... thanks for your patience. I'm going to miss my mom terribly, but I know that this is all a part of life. I was so lucky to have her!