Let me tell you about my Mother

LaVerne McKinney Lynn

 

She was only 15 when she married my Daddy.  She did not finish high school, but you never would have thought that if you had known her.  She was very intelligent, and required that my two brothers and I  always use correct English grammar.  She was beloved by many and taught a Sunday School class for several years.

Her parents lived on an honest-to-goodness farm near the tiny town of Osage, Texas.  It was called the 3-R Ranch--Rocks, Rabbits, and Rattlesnakes!"  No inside plumbing.  Clothes made from feed sacks.  Animals of every variety.   A working windmill.  

My mother loved my daddy like crazy and vice versa! There were never cross words spoken between them. 

I have no idea how Mother knew all the things she knew.  For instance, I remember her correcting me when I pronounced diphtheria "dip-theria."  She instructed me that the pronunciation is "dif-theria."  She was right, but how did she know that?  She also taught me how to correctly place silverware in a table setting.  Believe me, that didn't seem likely with her background.

One day I sneezed extremely loudly. Mother said, "Would you have sneezed like that in church?" I then realized that I could sneeze quite quietly if I tried. She taught us to chew with our mouths closed. She did not allow us to use the word "fool" directed at another person. This one is most unusual...she did not allow us to accuse each other of or use the word "lying." 

She was an excellent seamstress. I remember that she made me a beautiful new dress to wear on my first date with Jack Stovall!

Six months after Jack and I married, Mother got sick.  The problem turned out to be a benign but troublesome brain tumor.  There was a surgery to remove it, but it grew back.  The second surgery damaged her brain to the point that she was paralyzed on her right side and couldn't stand or speak or swallow for 3 years. 

Mother had a spelling board that Daddy made for her.  It had all the letters of the alphabet on it, and she could point to letters with her left hand (opening her hand at the end of a word) faster than we could read.  The only specific thing I remember her spelling for me was when she found out we were expecting a baby (Susan.)  She spelled, "Who ever heard of a grandbaby you can't sing to?"

Mother died right after she turned 50 years old.  Susan was 9 months old at the time.  I so miss not having been able to know her as an adult.  I have now been blessed to live over half again as long as she did.  I not only got to sing to my grandbabies, they now sing for me.