Visiting Mama and Jenny's New Project

Photo - Mama and Me - 1949

I paid Mama a visit this weekend. I had wanted to surprise her and just show up, but she's such a busy lady I decided I had better let her know my plans. Mama would be upset with me if I put anything personal online about her, so I'll keep this very impersonal. She is not like most 84 year old ladies. How many 84 year old ladies do you know who still have jobs? Mama says she's still working half days because she likes having someplace to get up and go every morning, and because she loves what she's doing. She loves the people she works with, and they have all adopted her as their second mama. I love them too, because they are so good to her. In addition to her job, Mama is busy with church activities, garden club, DAR, bridge club, exercise class and daily walks. She also volunteers at the local hospital, crochets caps for our soldiers, and meets once a month for lunch with a group of "girls" she graduated high school with in 1942. She even washes her own car - no carwash for my thrifty mama! I can only hope to to follow in Mama's footsteps as I get older - the trouble is I can scarcely keep up with her now!

When she was in her fifties she discovered that she had hidden talent. She could paint! She took up china painting. Here are two of my favorite pieces :

I was at Mama's when Jenny rang me on my cell phone. She was creating something new and wanted to borrow something from my sewing supplies. She wouldn't tell me what she was making, but she has it posted on her blog now, so you can see for yourself. Jenny told me she had sketched this thing and so forth. I told Mama I couldn't understand it - here 's my daughter getting ready to sew circles around me, drawing her own patterns, etc. Mama told me to remember who raised Jenny. Sure made me feel better to think that just maybe I had a little something to do with her creativity, but I'm sure she had to inherit the artistic part from her daddy.