Ninety years of mama.....

Saturday, September 14, 2013 was mama's 90th birthday.   What a wonderful day for her as all of her six children and five of their spouses were able to be with her and she was indeed in her glory!  

We are in birth order L to R, oldest to youngest.

Mama has had a long life and for most of her life she has been really busy!  Growing up as one of seven children couldn't have been easy, but she fiercely loved all of her brothers and sisters.

Born on what she calls "The Lower Farm", she was the fifth of the seven.  You may remember this picture that she recently received from a cousin.  

In fact, looking back through old posts I notice that I've said these same things many times but I guess if you want, you can just drag yourself through it again as I reminisce!

Mama with her parents George Washington and Palestine Anderson.


As you can imagine, money wasn't plentiful in a household where there were seven children and my grandmother always had a job or two and cooked for the fish camp where my grandfather worked.  Grandma also made most of the clothes for her children.  Mama never learned to sew but her sister did and often made our dresses, especially at Easter.

I'm not sure what this event was, but wasn't mama 
beautiful? 
 
Even though times were hard, mama and her sisters had a good time.  They danced at the USO when they could on the weekends and on top of The Dixie Sherman Hotel.

Mama apparently worked in a dime store downtown when she met my daddy.  According to her, when he walked out of that store he told his friend that he had just met the girl he would marry.  And by golly, he was right!
Mama, by then, worked at the local paper mill and saved for months to buy the fur collar on her wedding suit.....it was hot the day they married, a typical Florida end of October hot, but mama was wearing that fur no matter what and she did as they married in what was then St. Andrew's Baptist Church with two witnesses, her sister and daddy's friend.  
They're friends pooled their gas coupons so that mama and daddy could have a honeymoon.


Their honeymoon turned out to be something of a disaster an adventure.  Upon arriving at Wakulla Springs, much to their horror they discovered the hotel kitchen had burned and the hotel was closed to the public.  They ended up at daddy's brother's home in Georgia.  Doesn't that sound romantic?  Yea, mama thought so too!
Mama always had a thing for fur, but of course never enough money to buy one.......that is until she started putting aside the same amount of money that daddy spent buying cigarettes.  She saved and saved until she had enough money to buy a g.e.n.u.i.n.e. fur stole.....and she was oh, so proud of that fur.  It hangs in her closet today and I promise you that no matter how hot it is when she dies, we are burying mama in that fur stole! 

And then......the kids started coming!  Mama with my oldest brother.

Birthday party for my older sister.  The boy on the right rolling his eyes is a cousin who was absolutely thrilled to go to a girl cousin's birthday party! 


Seriously, just one big happy family!  This is when there were just five of us kids.  We had an appointment to have a family picture made but there was a long line and my daddy wasn't the most patient man, so he had someone come to our house to take photos....I'm not sure why everyone 
looks so happy here!
  


Mama was always happiest at the beach!  Here she is at a little cottage she and daddy rented one summer long ago

With her sister at the beach......mama did love those little stickers!  This is where I learned that laughter is the best medicine!

Mama.....well.......she's just mama.....always there for her children and anyone else who needed her.  Her home was shelter to many over the years, always making room for one more although not so much after the kids started multiplying!  

 I don't remember mama ever sitting down with us or playing games with us.....she was probably too busy trying to keep us fed!  She absolutely did not gossip which could be very irritating at times being as we were always the last to know things.  Mama could and still can keep a secret and if you ask her what her secrets are she will quickly reply "if I told you, it wouldn't be a secret anymore!"  
And so, we missed out on lots of family stuff that was none of our business anyway information.

On her birthday,  this was my facebook status...

She taught us to love the Lord....

Love our husbands first and our children second....
Oh, my goodness.....she loved my daddy as much as I've ever seen a woman love a man.  

That it is not only o.k........but absolutely necessary to laugh in the most difficult of circumstances! 

She still has that incredible sense of humor.

That sense of humor has served us all well.

So mama's 90 now........

She is truly a Proverbs 31 woman and her children rise up and called her blessed!