My Mom, and my thoughts go out to her as we get closer to Mother's Day. She left this earth too soon.
She loved family, and "good times" with her family.
She was a "PK," a Preachers Kid. James Shannon, her Father, was a United Brethren Minister, now Methodist, and her early life revolved around the church. He ultimately became a Bishop in the church.
A lot of her stories revolved around the church, and incidents that happened there. She had a sister, Eva Shannon, and they had so many stories to tell of their growing up, many of which revolved around the church.
They always told the story of an elderly man in the church who had not been feeling well for quite some time, and finally felt good enough one Sunday morning to give it a try. He and his wife agreed that if he got to feeling bad, he would get up, go outside, and wait for his wife outside.
During the service, he leaned forward in the pew, and told his wife, "Mother, I think I'm going."
She reluctantly told him, "Oh, alright," a little disgruntled that he was leaving, but as they agreed, she thought he was leaning forward to retrieve his hat from under the pew.
He died, right there in the church.
I never heard her use a "cuss" word, they were not in her vocabulary. She was a patient, faithful and dutiful Doctors wife. The hospital and his patients came first, she understood that.
When Dad first retired, he agreed to go to work for Blue Shield, travel the state, and implore Doctors to not take advantage of health insurance. They gave him a car and an assistant for his travels
On one occasion, Mom was going to accompany them on a short trip, and they took my Dad's car, Werner, his assistant drove.
After a while, my Mom commented, "Dean, there aren't nearly as many bastards on the road when Werner drives." A rare occurrence for Jessie to use a word like that, my Dad, the Doctor, had a bit of a temper.
If a child used an "off color" word or phrase, her comment generally was, "He/she didn't suck that out of his/her thumb."
Mom died suddenly, I wish I had more time with her, some of those great summer evenings, sitting on the front screened-in porch, looking out over the lawn, the smell of fresh mowed grass in the air, and the pond, some occasional fireflies lighting up the night, just sitting and talking. I was always too busy doing something else to spend much time with her.
"Backward, turn backward ........................"
Happy Mothers Day.
