The end of a delightful weekend, beginning of a beautiful week

Sunday was Mothers' Day and although I have no children born of my body, I have had some wonderful children to nurture and love in my life. 

One of them never forgets to send me a sweet and loving card on Mother's Day. It feels good to know that I have had a positive impact on someone's life, especially someone I care for. It pleases me, too, that she appreciates her aunt who loves her like a daughter.  

My friend Joan and I enjoyed a delightful Mother's Day brunch together at one of our more upscale restaurants. We had not sat face-to-face in over a year, so I was happy when she called and invited me to this lovely affair. We were given a large bouquet of flowers after our meal. Like me, Joan lives alone since her husband passed away some years ago, and we face many of the same challenges in life. She is a fine poet and an active member of our writers' network. It was fun to laugh with her again.

 

Flowers I received from the Ridges 

My sister drove me home from her house on Thursday and stayed with me until Saturday. 

I had spent two weeks with Gay and Stu as I healed from my recent fall. I tease them saying their house is Moring's Resort because they pamper me and care for Lexie as well when we are there. I am so, so blessed to have my sister, Gay. And, we enjoy being together just as we did when we were kids.

I am happy to say that I am once again walking without help and feeling good. I now have much respect for those who must depend on walkers and wheelchairs and still manage on their own. I look forward to the coming weeks and getting back into my regular routine. 

My friend, Michelle, and I are genealogy buffs. We spent a few hours together Saturday researching the Posey family because we both have that line in our history. She is a whizz when it comes to online research and could give the TV show some pointers, I am sure. She has discovered that she and I are distant cousins through the Posey family going back to Francis Posey who came to this country when it was being settled in the 1600s or 1700s. We both spend too much time at the computer working on genealogy.

I am once again looking for some part-time help with office work in my studio. I miss Corie, the lovely Pressley girl, who now has a full-time job. I need someone who can use a keyboard, read cursive writing, organize, and a few other things. I am over-run with paper in this world where we are supposed to be paper-free. Recently I filled three garbage bags with paper in one afternoon, and I still have much more to get rid of.

A big plus in my life is my weekly Memoir class taught on Zoom. I am proud of how well my students are learning and the wonderful stories they are sharing. Tuesday afternoons are a bright spot in my week. I will take a break from teaching this summer but plan to teach again in the fall.

I hope you all had a great Mothers' Day if you are a mother. If you have lost your mother as I have, I feel your sadness. Some who were dear mothers in my family have passed away since last May. My sympathies to their children. And my deepest sorrow for those mothers who have lost children. 

Thank you all for checking in here with me and reading my posts. I love to hear from you either with a comment on this blog or if you want to send an email to my msn.com address.  You are all special to me. May your coming week be healthy and happy. 

My mother, Lois Robison Council surrounded by those who loved her most.

Thanks to those whose shoulders I've stood on.

Quote from Maria Shriver: This week, thank those whose shoulders you stand on. Honor those who came before you. Be grateful for those who paved the way for the life you have now. And, if you don’t know their stories, then ask them. Or look them up. Read about their lives or watch a documentary, like my daughter did. One of the best ways to honor someone’s legacy is to learn about it, and then carry their story forward in your life and in others.

I stood on the shoulders of my sister, June, who would not accept that her only alternative was to marry and be a housewife.
She wanted to earn her own money, make her own decisions and she did. She earned a scholarship to college and then helped send me to college.

June Council 

Without June's encouragement and support, I don't think I would have my B.S. in Education. My parents' hope was to have their seven children complete high school. College was too large a goal and seemed much too far to reach for my father.

June was taken under the wing of her art teacher, and she often spent weekends with the teacher's family. My sister was determined not to marry a local farm boy and work as hard as farmers' wives worked. She wanted a home like her art teacher had and lovely things she saw there.

June finished two years at GSCW (Georgia State College for Women, before she came home and went to work to help the family. Soon she was employed at Turner Air Force Base in Albany.  By that time, the family had a new house and life was better for everyone.

I admire her because she never forgot her little sisters and was determined that we would have more opportunities than she had.  In summer, we spent weeks with my sister and her husband, Stan, who was an officer in the Air Force. We saw a more sophisticated lifestyle and a home with finer things.

At their house, art by famous painters hung on the walls. On Friday evenings, Stan grilled a large steak. Although only he and June and Gay and I sat at the dining table, candles burned in the center giving a soft glow to our little circle, making the crystal and silver shine.  Being there made me feel warm and loved. My sister showed me a life that I could have if I wanted.

Women living today have stood on the shoulders of the women who came before us. My mother showed me how to love unconditionally and how to appreciate important things in life that money could not buy - love, family, generosity and compassion for others. She taught me acceptance, a hard lesson for me. She did not enjoy the frugality she had to endure, but she had chosen to help her husband follow his dream and she did all she possibly could to make that dream come true. Without her, he and his sons would not have been successful, because she was willing to sacrifice for her family. I am thankful that she prospered as well when the family business paid off. 


I have stood on the shoulders of my sister, Gay. 
Her giving heart, her genuine caring for others, has been an example to me. She is an unbelievable artist and has inspired me for many years. Recently she inspired me even more when she decided to get in physical shape by doing something she loves -- dancing! When many women younger than she are complaining of aches and pains, are sitting in front of their television sets or sitting around a card table, she attends classes three times each week where she dances for hours. In a short time her endurance and stamina have grown as well as her self confidence and renewed interest in her improved physical appearance. I am trying to emulate her now. Every time I look at her, see how happy she is, I am overjoyed.

My painting instructor, my first poetry teacher and my friend, the first woman poet laureate of North Carolina, are in the same category--women who paved the way for me to journey on to where I am today. Without them, I would not have achieved much of what makes me the woman I am today.

Do you have women who helped pave the way for you, or gave you a boost to achieve your goals?
Are there women in your past who changed your life?

Maria Shriver wants to be like my mother.

Dear God, please help me remain calm, strong, classy and dignified, no matter what life throws my way. Amen.  --Maria Shriver

This prayer posted by Maria Shriver today reminds me of what my mother might have said.
She raised my sisters and me to stay above the fray, to keep our heads when all about us were losing theirs. When I came home and told my mother that a girl on the school bus wanted to fight. Mother said, "Girls fighting is low class, trashy, behavior."  This from a farm wife who was unsophisticated, but had been raised with good morals and values. 

LOIS COUNCIL

I still feel that way and when I see high school girls fighting, it turns my stomach with disgust. I feel sorry for them that they had no one to teach them how to behave.

From what we see on television and in movies, our society in the United States has become "low class, trashy" in many ways. Civil, dignified behavior is absent from our leadership in Washington, and it has become popular with the people on the street, the children in school and in homes. We have become a "dog-eat-dog" culture where we say and do anything that behooves us, and we care not for those who get hurt. 

It seems our culture is missing empathy. We only think of ourselves and we can't or won't put ourselves in the shoes of others, try to understand how they feel. Alan Alda who is an expert on communication says we don't listen. I think we all know that. We are thinking about what we want to say, and we don't hear others speak.

JUNE COUNCIL

My sister, June, was the perfect southern, genteel woman who could hold her own with anyone who was disagreeable or who was being a problem. She never used a curse word, a vulgarity, or called anyone names. She had such command of vocabulary that the average person hardly realized that he had been shut up and admonished by the best until he walked away.

June was strong, calm, classy and dignified no matter what life threw at her. I strive to be like her, but I often fail. 

We need more role models like June Council and my mother, Lois Council. Perhaps that would bring back classy, dignified deportment and rid us of the trashy, low class behavior prevalent in our world today.

Mother's Day reflections

Lois Robison Council

This past week two of my Robison cousins, my mother’s family, came for a visit. We had a great time talking about our families and especially my mother, Lois Robison Council. Rob Robison said she gave the best hugs in the world and even though he didn’t get to see her often, she always gave him a big hug and seemed to really care about him. She did care for him and kept up with him all her life.

Rob is the grandson of her oldest brother, Avon Robison. Mother was next to the youngest so there were many years between them, but they loved each other.

Mother was raised in a home filled with love and she loved most people she knew. She was a forgiving soul, too. Unlike many others I have known, she never criticized her family.  Her brothers and sisters were good people and some of their spouses were not so good to them she said, but she was not rude to anyone so she accepted them as well.

My Mother, Lois Robison Council, who was always beautiful inside and out

We knew most of our cousins as we grew up and I met Rob, who is a  second cousin, when he was a kid a few years younger than I, but not when he was an adult, that I remember. But now we are like old friends who enjoy seeing each other and talking about our Robison family history.  He lives in Arkansas now but grew up in a military family living all over. 

My g-grandfather, was John Monroe Robison, and he had many children. His son, William Henry Robison was my grandfather. Rob’s father was named Henry Robison. Henry was killed in a plane crash during WWII. He was only 23 years old. He left behind his wife pregnant with Rob.

It broke my mother’s heart when Henry died. He was close to my sister June’s age. They both graduated from Albany High School, as did I and all my siblings. We often visited Henry’s mother and father after he died. They always cried when they talked about their only son. Their house was like a shrine to Henry.

Tomorrow is Mother’s day and I am grateful, as I am every day, that I had the most understanding and caring mother anyone ever had. I knew I was loved and she was always on my side. Mother had unconditional love for the children she brought into the world. We don’t often find that anywhere else. She had so much love in her heart that it spilled over to others around her. 

I wish every child could have a mother like mine.