We had a good life as children. We lived in Northern California, Downey, Palos Verdes and Long Beach, spending most of our childhood in Long Beach. Momma was a wonderful housekeeper and we always had such wonderful meals. Cooking for people was one of my mothers special gifts to the world. I don't remember my mom and dad ever being real close, but I know they loved us, and I felt very secure. Mamma always saw to it that we took dance, music, and swimming lessons at the Y.W.C.A. She also was our personal beautician, which we hated. She made the greatest parties and holidays of any mother I knew. I will never forget the time that she got the garage all scary and let us have a Halloween party in it. She went all out. She had spaghetti guts, grape eyeballs, and all kinds of spooky stuff for treats. She tried to make us all think we were eating a cat.
She loved animals, so we always had lots of animals. She also made the most wonderful gardens and landscaping of anyone I knew. I was always proud of our beautiful house, as she was an interior decorator. We couldn't live in it, but it was beautiful. We had to live in the back of the house where our rooms were. I remember that she let us write on the walls in our room as she was soon to take a sledge hammer to them to rebuild the inside of our house. My dad almost lost it when he came home one day to a gutted out house. He didn't like it much either, when he came home one day and Mamma had bought encyclopedias.
Once she found a snake in the garage, and we heard her scream. By the time we came running, momma had that snake chopped in about 5 pieces.
Her favorite saying was shape up or ship out. Her other saying I can't repeat, but it had to do with shovels. (he he) She had a definite English sense of humor. She reminded us all of Lucille Ball. She was a real character and pulled all kinds of shenanigans. She ran a tight ship and prided herself in keeping order and beauty. I didn't pick up much on those genes. But I have always admired momma for her ability to make everything around her beautiful. I will never forget the way Momma organized our vacations to Kansas. It was absolutely remarkable how she cooked on hot plates and kept all of us kids interesting in various projects.
I also must mention that momma had a cookie drawer. For this we have all blamed her for our overeating tendencies. We could eat anything we wanted from the drawer until four o'clock. Then we had to stop raiding the cookie drawer for our dinner was soon to be made. We also all curse her for making us do the dishes from the time we were toddlers. None of us care for dishes to this day.
I know one thing, momma loved her kids. She was very strict, made us toe the mark, and doled out one too many spankings, in my opinion. She never held her tongue on what was on her mind. (As hurtful as her words were). We were her life and then came the divorce. Things were never the same after that.
My father left us for a very young girl. My mother did some pretty strange things to him back then, like pulling a cigarette lighter on him that looked just like a gun. She almost choked him with his tie. She had a few boyfriends after her divorce, but they were so awful that she always ended up the hurt one. She packed us all up after the divorce and moved us to the San Bernardino mountains. We moved to a very large three story house. She traded her ex-boyfriend's truck, for the down payment. Our adventure in the mountains began. My mother loved the teenagers and let us have so many kids in our house it was the place the teenagers flocked. It was like a big party all the time. Some of our days there we were very poor but we never knew it. Once she could only get work at the local bakery. She made us think we were living high on the hog when she brought home pie to eat for dinner. But in actuality pie was the only food we had. She got herself a job at the beauty salon in town. She was a gutsy woman with lots of determination. The one big flaw Momma had was that she tried to save old drunks. She was going to save them all. She ended up marrying Mike, Mel, & Mr. Burger, but these marriages always ended in tragedy and divorce. My mother was a nomadic sort of woman and we moved a lot. We moved from the mountains to Costa Mesa, back to the mountains, to Long Beach, back to the mountains, to Long Beach to my Grandmothers, and then to Huntington Beach. We stayed at my mothers house for a short while but Grandma Nana was beginning to lose her mind to Alzheimer disease, and went a little crazy. We had to leave fast. So Mamma packed everything into our gold Buick station wagon, and we drove around Huntington Beach/Fountain Valley area until we got tired. We were all asleep in our car when we heard a rap on the window and a policeman politely told us that we could not stay there. So we moved. Momma slept under the picture, which was a family heirloom. We slept on top of all the clothes. The next day my mother wrote a bad check to rent a house, then she went and got a job and a loan to cover it. It was amazing what she did! One day we had nothing and the next day we had a home and some furniture. While we were unpacking, Mamma sent us to the store to get some peanut butter. Linda asked her what kind, and Mamma said, " I don't know...striped". Well it just so happened that they had just come out with striped peanut butter so we brought her home striped peanut butter. We all got a good laugh out of that. We had to move again, to an apartment. Momma met Lauren P."Woody" Wood when we lived there. and he would eventually be the husband that she would stay with. He was the man who would love her and care for her until her death. After they had been seeing each other for a while, before they married, my mom was having problems and attempted to take her life. This was a very trying time for all of us. We soon moved to Long Beach, where my mother worked in the office at the apartments we lived in. She then married Woody. When my sisters and I all left at 18, Mamma moved to Puerto Rico where Woody had work. Then they moved to Samoa. She took up painting in Samoa with a vengeance. She had dabbled in art all of her life and was quite a good artist. She had an art fair there in Samoa, and told all of the people in Samoa that she was a great artist from America. She sold $5,000.00 worth of her paintings there in Samoa. They then moved to the Philippines where she had a big beautiful home with maids and a beautiful garden. She left her mark in that home by painting a big beautiful mural on the wall near the staircase. She had an encounter with a cobra in her garden, and many other strange experiences while living in the Philippines. She even arranged for one of her maids, to get together with her son in laws brother. Her matchmaking paid off with a marriage union and a wonderful family who ended up living near her in Las Vegas. She bought a house in El Toro California, and allowed me to live there and take care of it while she was in the Philippines. We had our ups and downs and didn't get along very well during those years, and I ended up moving to Utah. My mother began having heart problems so she had to move to the states once again. She moved back to California without Woody. She lived alone in San Diego, Costa Mesa, and Castroville (in Northern California). Momma's health was rapidly declining as she had terrible osteoporosis along with heart problems. This caused her to lose many inches off of her height. Her neighbor once found her lying on the floor with back spasms, she had been there for an entire day. She was stubborn and wouldn't go to the hospital. Ever since my mom was a young woman she was a Christian Scientist. She had faith in healing. (Although she always smoked, unlike other Christian Scientist ) This faith kept her very strong and she rarely went to doctors. She fell in love with my little daughter Elisha and formed a lifelong bond with her. Soon she moved to Porterville, California to live near us. Porterville is in central California, and my mother hated the heat there. She loved living near us though. Woody and her had bought a house with a pool. That way he would have a place to come on his vacations. She always had us over and we went garage sale hunting often, and ate at her house often. We really grew close during that time. This was a healing time for both of us. I grew to know my mother and forgave her for the problems we had in the past. I grew to love her and she began to respect and love me. She got to be grandma to my kids. But as we all knew she didn't care for the grandsons as she did for her little Elisha. She doted over her. Soon she sold her home and moved in with our Grandfather Cy, in Long Beach, after her mother died. This didn't last long because she had a heart attack and triple bypass surgery. We almost lost Momma then, but she was very stubborn about death. The doctor told her that if she kept smoking after the surgery, that she had about two years to live. She kept smoking, and lived fifteen years more, just to spite the doctor. When she recovered, she moved to a mobile home park for seniors near where we lived in Porterville. This was a wonderful time and I grew close to my mom. We spent many quality hours together. Then Woody retired and came home to live. Momma took Elisha into her home and taught her many things she needed to learn. She helped Elisha buy a car. She was always so helpful and loving to Elisha. After a few months Elisha moved back to our house. Momma and Woody remained there at the mobile home park for a while. Grandpa Cy was very sick with liver cancer, and Woody's father was very old and getting to the point where he couldn't take care of himself. They took Cy in to their home to care for him, but knew they needed a bigger home. Momma just wasn't well enough to care for him. They put Cy into a rest home, and had a home built where they could take care of both of the old guys. Before their house was finished, they paid my husband Richard to take care of Cy. We took him into our home, where he died a week later. Before their house was finished, Woody's father also died. This left them with a very big beautiful house and only the two of them. After they moved into their new house I visited my mom often. I loved our visits and will always cherish them. My Mom and Woody gave me their car and bought a new one. We have her old car to this day. Momma had a big heart when she wanted to, and I appreciate all that she did and gave to me. We knew not to ask for anything though, for she felt she would enable us and wouldn't contribute to our needs in that way. But she always helped us so much in her own way. She loved to preach to us and give us advise. Momma has had many bouts with illnesses that we were sure would take her. She always recovered from these illnesses and we began to believe that she would outlive us all. Woody and Momma sold their huge home in Porterville and moved to another mobile home complex for seniors in Las Vegas. We moved to Utah. She seemed very happy in her beautiful mobile home there, but was lonely for her family. We got balled out a lot for not visiting her. My mom was feisty till the end. My daughter Elisha, her beloved granddaughter, spent the last week with her until she passed away on Sunday January 8th 2000. My sister Linda was also able to go and be with her the last two days of her life. I want to thank both of them for caring for Momma till the end. I know it was not easy for them. I also want to thank Woody for the way he has cared for her all of these years.
Momma you were and always will be a true character. We love you and will miss you greatly. Your daughters: Lissa, Linda, Paula and your grandchildren.
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