Cat Scan

Mom is always with you

As I was driving home to change clothes and go to the hospital for work tonight, I was listening to the radio.  I usually listen to my IPhone music in the car but for some reason today, I turned on the radio, and to a station I don't usually listen to.  I was a little misty-eyed after my earlier blogging message about  Mom.  Then I heard a song on the radio that made me feel like she was listening to my thoughts and wanted me to hear her through that song. This may sound crazy to some, but it made perfect sense to me! The song was Phil Collins' You'll be in My Heart.  I looked up the words when I got home, and these are some of the words:

Come stop your crying, It will be alright, just take my hand and hold it tight

I will protect you from all around you I will be here Don't you cry

My arms will hold you, keep you safe and warm, this bond between us cannot be broken I will be here Don't you cry

Cause you'll be in my heart, yes you'll be in my heart from this day on now and forever more

When destiny calls you, you must be strong cause I may not be with you

You'll be in my heart, no matter what they say, you'll be in my heart always always

yes, I'll be with you, cause I'll be there for you always, always and always

Just look over your shoulder, just look over your sholder, I'll be there for you always. 



I can feel the love and tender arms of my Mom through this song today.  I am thankful to be her daughter. Love you Mom.

Anna Time

Anna is coming to visit GiGi this weekend for an overnight visit.  I am so excited.  It is also the beginning of spring break!  Anna always brings hugs and kisses and smiles when she visits!  She is so much fun! I can't wait until she sees her new play area.  She will be so excited!! And I figured out how to upload pictures to the blog!  I enjoy being with my family so much.  I am so glad that Michael and Jennifer are living in Lexington now and that Mike and Jen and Anna are just a short drive away. 

I am still working on my Mother-of-the-groom diet and am doing pretty good.  I finally broke down and got a new scale but it is one you have to program, so it will take me a while to figure it out.  I am getting excited about the wedding and Jen and I are doing the shower in three weeks! That is also exciting!  I am so happy for Michael and Jennifer.  I couldn't ask for better daughter-in-law.  I am so happy for them. 

More of My Mom

Well, I tried to do a spell check on my last post and somehow messed it up and couldn't continue typing on it, so I am starting a new post to finish my thoughts.  When I think back on my childhood, my Mom is the rock that made me who I am today.  She loved unconditionally, but she would be honest with you and tell you the way she viewed things.  I wouldn't have the career that I have if it wasn't for her.  I wanted to quit college and she told me I would have to get a better job than working at a pharmacy for minimum wage.  And I didn't have any skills so I decided to go back to college and try the radiography program.  No matter what happened in our lives, we always knew that Mom was there for us.  She was so wise and so comforting.  I wish everyday that I could just talk to her one more time.  Just talking to her made me feel better.  I am so glad that Jennifer and Michael got to know her and that Jennifer is telling Anna about her namesake.  My Mom would be so honored to have her great-granddaughter named after her.  Even though she is gone from this earth, she is not gone from our lives.  I still her voice in my head everyday.  Jennifer, Michael and Leah used to have NaNa-sayings and they will always be part of us.  Her wisdom and compassion and love will always be with me, in my heart, soul and mind.  She still lives on everyday through all of us, brothers and sisters, grandchildren and now great grandchildren.  She would be so happy that we are still close to one another and that we support one another in all that we do.  I see her in beautiful days, rainbows, smiles on my brothers' and sister's faces, through Jennifer and Michael and Anna.  It is the circle of life in perspective.  My wish is that I can have half of the wisdom, courage and knowledge that she possessed in her lifetime and that I can pass on part of her to the future generations in our family.  She made the world a much better place for all of us and I am proud to have been her daughter.  I love you  Mom, 

My Mom

Today is my Mom's birthday.  She was born on March 6, 1925.  Her mom was Daisy Belle Robertson McAfee, my grandmother, that we called Ma.  I was the first grandchild so I got to spend a lot of time with Ma when I was growing up.  She was a wonderful grandmother.  But that is a story for another time though.  This is the story of my Mom.  She was the oldest child and had a younger brother named Tommy.  My grandmother and grandfather divorced when my mom was young, around 5 or 6 I think.  That was during the Great Depression and my grandmother had to support them because my grandfather didn't have any money to help support them.  My mom grew up not having much, she didn't have a "store bought" dress until she was in high school.  They all slept in the same bed growing up because that is all they had.  They didn't have much money but they had a lot of love and had fun.  Mom played the clarinet in the school band at Henry Clay High School; it was on Main Street then,  where the Board of Education building is now.  She went to all of the football games and marched with the band.  Ma drove to the games and Mom had lots of friends that would ride with them.  They would come back to Ma's and rolll up the rugs in the living room and dance the night away.  My mom loved people and enjoyed doing things like that.  She graduated from high school in 1942, which was the beginning of WWII.  My grandma worked as a typist and switchboard operator and my mom started working in a office, I forget the name right now, but I remember it was on Limestone street in a building called the Dunn building.  She would show me the building sometimes.  Her best friend was Charlotte Gordon.  They were friends all through high school.  Charlotte wanted to go to nursing school.  With the war, they were needing more nurses and Charlotte talked Mom into applying to the St. Joseph School of Nursing.  It was on Second Street then and when you were in nursing school then, you stayed in a dorm. That dorm is now the Jefferson Center.  The old hospital, which is where I was later born, is the retirement home across the street.  Mom said she almost gave up when she was trying to learn the anatomy but Charlotte kept quizzing her and she wouldn't let her quit.  Nursing was very different then than it is today.  My Mom used to say she was a 'BC' nurse, before computers! She was the nurse that actually spent time with patients, gave them baths and rubbed lotion on their dry skin and listen to their concerns.  She was also a great IV starter.  After she graduated from nursing school she worked at Eastern State and then started working at the VA hospital, the one on Leestown Rd.  That is where she met my Dad.  He was older than she was by 8 years.  When he met her, he told his friend who worked with him, Earl, that he would marry her some day.  From the first date they went on, they were together every day Mom told me.  She said when Daddy called on day and wanted to come over to see her, she was ironing and it was hot and she was sweating, but she said if he didn't mind that he could come over.  He came over to ask her to marry him and she said if he could love her when she was looking like that he must really love her.  They got married on October 1, 1949 at the church on the corner of Rand Avenue and Martin Luther King Blvd.  I don't remember the name of the church but I know it was a Baptist church.  They had their honeymoon in the Smokie Mountains.  I remember when we would drive to Florida, we would drive by a little restaurant in London, KY that she told me that was where she and daddy had their first meal as a married couple.  She also showed me where they stayed on their honeymoon in the Smokies one time when we stopped there on our way to Florida.  I was born in January 25, 1951, then Judy (JuJu) came along in October 27, 1954, then Chuck in February 12, 1957, then Paul in July 11, 1960.  We lived in a lot of different places growing up.  Mom always worked and in those days, it was not as common for women to work outside the home.  And there were not as many conveniences as there are today.  Clothes had to be ironed, there were no microwaves, most food was made from scratch and Mom had to do everything.  I don't remember my Dad ever cleaning the house.  He did all of the outside work, mowing and painting and working on cars, etc.  It was a different time in those days.  But I know how much work my Mom had to do with four kids and working full time.  When we lived in Florida, Mom worked second shift and stayed home with Judy and Chuck during the day and Daddy worked days and the next door neighbor watched us from when Mom left for work until Dad got home.  I only saw her in the morning for breakfast and she was already gone to work by the time I got home from school.  She worked private duty then and worked every day, she never had a day off.  I remember crying to daddy to let me stay up til Mom got home because I missed her so much.  I don't know how she did it.  When we moved back to Kentucky, she started working the night shift and worked that for years.  She rearly go more than 4 or 5 hours of sleep