My Mother died 11 October 2007. Mary Charlene Gardner Pendergrass born 5 June 1923, my Mom, was a good person. She remains a great soul. Moms are with you always, at least the good ones are. I have many fond memories of my Mother that I will take to my grave some day. These last few years have been different. Mom had a heart condition that due to poor medical advice caused her to suffer brain damage during an extreme attack of Arrhythmia (sp). Blood flow to her brain was inefficient and......well.... From that point on she was in a slow downspiral of increasingly severe dementia. Similar to the more well known Alzheimers, she could not remember what happened just minutes before. I spent many occasions with her and my Dad responding to the sweet enquiry, "Now who are you, Sweetheart?" I had prepared myself for this when the Doctors described the future for us after her attack but no one can be prepared for it the first time. Mom, the soul, while still with us was now locked away in a body that was tragically her and yet not. Nevertheless, we still enjoyed her company more often than not. She now rests comfortably in the arms of Jesus where she was always confident she would spent eternity. I plan to join her and others both living and dead someday......but not yet, Momma.

In keeping with the DA penchant of making lists of things, I give you the first ten memories of my Mom that comes to mind. They are not ranked; neither in time or preciousness. They are simply what come to my mind and here I share them with you.

1. She was ticklish. As a teenager, I use to sneak up and kiss her loudly on the neck. This usually resulted in a loud awkward dance in the kitchen where I could catch her unaware....usually washing dishes I might add. Copious amounts of water were often redistributed over a large area.
2. One summer between getting my Masters Degree and getting a job in the oil industry, I helped her make a string tied quilt. When we finished, my fingers were as sore and useless as I can ever remember. It is a good warm quilt, too.
3. Mom could sew. She could make anything just by looking at it. When the Beatles came to the US the first time they wore jackets without collars. She surprised me not long therafter with a pale blue collarless sport jacket that was the envy of everyone, male, female or indifferent at Irving High School.
4. I used to go deer hunting....yesssss, I know, I am cruel and mean but that discussion is for another time....My wife, Sarah, was staying with Mom while Dad, some Uncles and I were off male bonding at a hunting camp. Back at the ranch, Sarah and Mom spotted some poachers night hunting with spotlights. Well they jumped in a car and ran the poachers off. There are more details there but it is a great memory for me that Sarah and Mom unarmed went out and chased evil doers.
5. She was a traditional Mom. I had a job in highschool that required that I get up at 4:00 AM to go to work. I would do the job and get home about 6:30. She always woke me up, courtesy of a little button next to her bed and an 8 inch alarm bell mounted in my closet. When I returned to the house after a hard morning's labor she would be up and fix my breaskfast of coffee, milk, orange juice, 6 eggs, six pieces of toast and a bowl of cereal. Occasionally, I would get some of her SPECIAL home made cinnamon biscuits. Ooooh Man!! That was really living!!!
6. I made the mistake of going to see a horror movie when I was about eight. At the time, 1956, "The Mole People" was horrorfying. I spent as much time on the floor between the seats as I did in my seat. That night I could not sleep. When I closed my eyes I could see those evil Mole folks making the ground swirl around my feet and I would begin to sink. I screamed myself awake again and again. Mom, got in my bed with me and held me most of the night while I slept. I was safe at King's X in Momma's arms.
7. Mom never finished high school. Married at 17 and a child, my sister, Connie, at 18, she just couldn't. While I was still in grade school, she got a job as a teacher's assistant at a private preschool. She had the knack for teaching. She took some courses at a local college that sorta looked the other way and became a qualified kindergarten teacher. In her eighth year of teaching all 20 of her five year old students were enrolled in her class before they were born. All of them were siblings of her former students. This phenomena continued until she quit teaching. By the way I was the janitor at that school my junior and senior years in highschool.
8. We were pretty poor when I was a little boy. We lived on 5 acres with chickens, 2 pigs and a cow. We had a two room stucco block house and all of us slept in the same room. We had a garden with corn, beans, okra, melons, squash, radishes, cucumbers and more. For a little boy it was an idyllic life. Our corn patch always had early "volunteer" corn. Mom and Dad declared me the master and caretaker of all the early corn plants. I was always so proud and she bragged that I always brought in the first crop each year.
9. Mom made just about every athletic event that I played even when I didn't get in the game. She made all the piano concerts; I was bad...worse than bad....excruciating!!! She attended all the choir concerts. She was my biggest fan.
10. When I had children of my own, Mom always had time to play dressup or two handed spades with Meghan or fix Jesse and Micah's favorite food. She would slip Jesse and his Boy Scout friends ice cream up at the house when we would go on campouts at the ranch. It was always fun to watch them play together. She was Aunt Charlene or Mama to just about everyone.

Well, there you have it. It has been a pleasant little journey for me to do this little exercise. If you have read all the way to this point thank you for sharing the trip. I hope you enjoyed it.

Jim