My Mom was a planner. She arrived in Schenectady NY as a new war bride after WWII. Looking around, she figured out if she was going to live nice she would have to get educated. She worked 3 jobs and enrolled in Western Reserve (now) University. With 2 years under her belt, she became a bookkeeper. After her 2nd divorce, she bought a car and learned to drive. She had new plans for a new life…in Los Angeles. Her house got painted and put up for sale. Sold her furniture and off we went to California.
She worked a decent job for decent money and supplemented her income with money she received from doing the books for various gas stations. She had started her own business! That money paid for her courses at USC, University of Southern California, graduating at the age of 54 and becoming an accountant. She had raised her family and now entered the travel phase of her life. Numerous trips yearly to Poland, The Great Wall of China, rode a camel at the Pyramids in Egypt, arrived in Moscow unknowingly with a canceled credit card due to her name being misspelled on her airline ticket.
I got planning from Mom. All who know me, know I live by a daily itinerary…on paper.
She had incredible laughter. Every time we bought a powerball, it belonged to both of us and she would insist that we needed a strategy as how to spend it. We laughed so hard we couldn’t talk and the tears would flow cuz our guts hurt sooo bad! Karen Petree, LaDonna Duncan, Cheryl Stumpf and Diane Hummer “experienced” me as we played “hand and foot”cards and I had developed 4 strategies, all of which had failed.
She would move all her furniture around at the change of the 4 seasons. I come that way naturally…to the next level.
She took me thrift store shopping every Saturday at the Garrett Shop in Lakewood Ohio. We would all get clothing and take it home and my Babcia would alter everything to fit. Mom would have a new dress every Monday morning for work. I have developed that to weekly garage sales, flea markets, antique malls…what can I say?
Her passion was desserts. Cleveland Plain Dealer would have some pastry recipe in the Sunday paper and the following Sunday we would be eating it. Not only was it delicious, but she was sooo talented in her presentation. When she fixed a supper, actually now that I remember, in our home, Babcia and Mom always dished out our portions and carried the plates into the dining room. When MOM fixed the plate…OMG! it looked like such a work of art, it was sad to disrupt that and eat it. Her radishes always looked like flowerettes, her lettuce adorned the salad…she drizzled the sauces, it was a masterpiece. In later life, she admitted if she had her life to do over, she would have been a culinary chef on a cruise ship and at night, played the piano in the bar.
Yes, I’m revisiting her life and thinking on the good times, remembering who I get that from…
