Dear Mom

ca 1959

Dear Mom,

Wanting to let you know how much I miss having you here. Time has not made things easier since you left but makes me miss you more than ever. You have been on my mind a lot lately and I think more so than usual as I made a visit to the house in which I spent the first eighteen years of my life.



How much fun you would have had seeing the house and the old neighborhood! Things were the same but yet again they were so different. When we arrived at the house we soon realized, from mail in the mailbox and an accumulation of newspapers on the front porch, that no one would be at the house. Knowing this I took the liberty of walking around the property and checking out the changes made to the house.


Standing by the willow tree that I used to play under, the hanging branches making it my playhouse.



So many memories came flooding through me from long ago, and with each step I took around the property I was telling childhood stories and even some secrets to my husband and sister-in-law. I was surprised at how small everything looked. The yard had gotten smaller, the hill next door shorter, the dangerous creek that once was so wide and deep was now almost hard to find, and the little willow tree grown, I think, five times the size that I remembered it to be. The farmer's field where we used to play football, baseball, and hide-and-seek is now gone, replaced by a huge apartment building.

ca 1952

Mom, you made our little house on Talmadge a home. A home that was a fun place for a child to grow up in. I now know the struggles you and dad went through to give us the swing sets, pools, bikes, toys, and all of the other things we had. I know you sacrificed things you wanted for yourself so your children could have things that they wanted.

Ca 1961

Thank you so much for buying me my flute so I could be in the marching band. Band was such an important part of my life and I passed that on to your grandchildren. Their high school memories as mine center around the band and marching competitions. You saw how the love of music was carried over to Scott as he entered college and studied music education and, as with me and the flute, you saw that he had the trumpet he needed for school and bought him the horn he picked out. I am so glad that you attended the many contests and concerts that he conducted with his own band. I also thank you for seeing that I had the most beautiful prom dresses, giving us family birthday parties, family getaways, and seeing that we always had the nicest Christmases.

ca 1954

All these years growing up I always thought I was my Daddy's little girl and in his eyes could do no wrong, even long after I was married. Now as the years pass by and I look back I am wondering why it took me over sixty years to realize that I was wrong. I now know that all along I was your little girl too. I will always treasure the friendship we shared and your unconditional love for me and your grandchildren.

Since visiting our little home there has been a sadness that overtakes me at times as these memories from so far away creep into my thoughts. There is no more here time for you and I to share but I always have you near me through all of the memories you and I shared together. I miss you as much as when you left. You are always with me; in my heart and in my thoughts, you live on through your grandchildren and your great granddaughter.

ca 1953

Thank you for being my mom, my friend, a wonderful mother-in-law to my husband, and just about the greatest grandmother to my children.

Love always,
Steph