I just spent the morning writing a 5,000+ word post for Mom’s 100th Birthday date, November 24th, and OMG is it ever a hoot in many places.

 

It’s scheduled to run  on that date, so I won’t divulge anything that’s in it here other than to say I thought of several other incidents while writing it that don’t appear on yesterday’s list of what will be in it.

 

I keep thinking of more, too, but I don’t know if they’re worth sharing. And 15 pages and 5000 words is probably sufficient since Jackie and Laurel are going to be sharing their memories when we celebrate, too.  (Not here on my blog, but if I hear anything new that you should know about Mom from them –and I probably will!–I will write an additional blog post to share those insights.)

 

I wanted to do it NOW because tomorrow is guaranteed to no one, and I want to be sure these memories don’t die with me if I croak before November 24th! I don’t want my memories of Mom to die when I do, any more than I wanted my memories of DeForest Kelley to die when I do.  These were two terrific people, and they should be remembered!

 

UPDATE:   I just spent two more hours going through my photo albums to see if I could find some good images of Mom. I did, and I found some great images of other people, too, including some of myself as a kid. So, I scanned them for use in blog posts and/or on Facebook for when I get around to writing about various times in the lives of the Smith clan (or their friends and other family).  Quite the nostalgia trip!

 

 

This is my mother’s grandfather

 

 

This is my mother’s grandmother

(both never left their homeland, now called Germany)

 

 

This is my mom’s mom  – very pretty lady even at 80!!

(the one who immigrated to the US as a child at the end of the 19th Century)

 

Another very pretty lady: My Mom at about age 45!

People say I look a lot like Mom, but I can’t see it. Can you?

(The below image of me is within about 10-12 years of the same age Mom was in the image above.)

I think my face shape is more like my great grandfather’s above!

 

Oh, well. It is what it is, whatever that is! Ha!