What the hell... I entered the contest. LOL

Well, I guess it must be done. I have the need to write about my mother and tell people what kind of person she was. Most people will talk about how their mother was an impeccable dresser, how she was a wonderful cook and maybe even how she kept an immaculately clean house or perhaps how she stayed home to rear her children. None of this was true about my mother. I have to set the record straight.
My mom had a wonderful sense of humor, she was as stubborn as anyone I have ever met and she could do almost anything but she was far from the typical housewife of her generation.  
She married my father when she was 15 yrs old and he was 22. They were married 62 years until her death on February 13th. She had lingering painful back issues from the time she was a child because she had to work in the fields plowing a mule to clear the land and make crops. She was the caretaker for her younger brothers as my grandparents both worked in the Goodyear mill and worked the farm.
She had spinal surgery in 1960 which left her in constant pain and this made the decision that she would seek work outside the home as she was unable to do the major household chores. She went to school with my oldest brother to brush up on her math skills so she could take the GED test. He will never forget the embarassment of sitting in 4th grade and his mother sitting beside him. LOL But she prevailed, passed her GED and then became a certified Junior Accountant.
She then went to work as a bookkeeper. In the mid-60's she was employed by Sears Roebuck and became the first woman to ever sell major ticket items such as appliances, carpeting and sewing machines for the company. What a novel idea! A woman could sell the very items that women use most in the home!  She was the highest rated salesperson in the store, beating out all the men every month. In 1969 she retired due to chronic pain but her life did not stop. She went on to be the first woman to run for the Morgan County School board in the mid-70s. She also became a "non-attorney representative" for Social Security Disability applicants. In a 35 year span she worked over 300 cases and never lost even one.
Her entire life was dedicated to helping others. She was a champion for the elderly, the downtrodden, the underdog and especially, the children. In the turmoil of the civil rights movement here in Alabama, she went head to head with the local school principal when she walked into the school office one morning in the early 60's and found the principal and several others crowded around the first African-American child that went to our school. They were taunting him and laughing as they made him "dance" for them. She waded into the middle of them, shielded the child with her body and told them she would "knock everyone of them in the head" if they tried it again. She received death threats on our home telephone for months after that incident. She never backed down. That young boy, now a man with children of his own, was at her funeral yesterday and he cried as if his own mother had passed away.
If my mother found a need, she did her best to fill it. To her it didn't matter whether you were a man or a woman, rich or poor. Your job was to help others regardless of your circumstances. I know of many people who received groceries when their children were hungry or needing clothes and shoes and to this day most of them have no idea where it came from.
She hated wearing dresses. She much preferred wearing pants and "dressing up" to her meant wearing a pair of ladies dress pants with a nice blouse. The church she attended had a meeting in the early 70's to vote on the issue of her being allowed to wear pants or not. She simply laughed and told them she didn't need their permission. Her manner of dress was between her and God.
She didn't enjoy cooking and wasn't a very good cook but we never went hungry and her lack of culinary expertise made her children, boy and girls alike, be self-sufficient in the kitchen. 
She could, and did, draw houseplans as good as any architect. My sister's house next door is proof. She could build anything and drive anything. She was a superb seamstress and quilter. She could crochet, plant a garden, recite the Bible front to back and make "wildcat whistles" out of a hickory stick. She could work on a car engine, use a cross-cut saw and cane a chair bottom as good as any craftsman. She could plumb a house, wire a lamp and make her favorite pepper jelly. 
Her proudest achievements and greatest joy in her life were her children, grand-children and great-grand-children. She loved them without equal and was their greatest defender. 
She never built the house that she drew on paper in the 60's. She gave away too much to others to save the money for that two-story colonial she wanted so badly. But today she's sitting on the wide front porch of her dream home, rocking a baby waiting to be born and biding her time until we all get there.  

I'm home long enough to shower, change, pack a bag and go back to the hospital. I will be there with my mom until she leaves. She is dying. Either we outlive our parents or they outlive us. Either way there is heartbreak. Thank you all for your prayers and support.