Thanks everyone for your responses. Looking back at my original post I realize it's pretty sad. We did have the sadness I spoke of but we also had moments of great fun all the same. I must tell you a few things I thought of later that brought a smile to my face.
My Mom, as bright as she was, could also be a bit absent minded. For instance:
- She played the piano at the meetings. One evening in her rush to get to the Hall on time she forgot to put on her dress. She put her coat on straight over her slip and didn't discover it until she rushed into the Hall just as the meeting was starting, sat down at the piano and began unbuttoning her coat. Luckily she realized what she'd done just as she was about to throw her coat off her shoulders. We never let her live that one down.
- She didn't know one kind of car from another. Color was the only way she could tell them apart. She was forever getting into other peoples cars that were the same color as ours. One time our whole family was waiting for her to come out of a store. We watched in delight as she got into the car parked across from us and demanded and explaination from it's occupants as to what they thought they were doing in our car. Then she saw all of us roaring with laughter in the next car over and had to do the walk of shame over to the right car.
- Another time out in field service, the car group was parked in the street waiting for her to finish up at a door. She came down the driveway and got into the householders car and wondered where everyone had gone.
- As kids we knew if we were going to be punished that if we got her laughing things would be ok. I remember her coming after me with a wooden spoon for being a smart @ss. She was swatting away at me, going around and around in circles. I began singing the Lucky Charms commercial with a mock Irish Leprechaun accent and doing a jig all around her .
Me: " Yer always after me lucky charms !
Mom:" You'll be needin' more than Lucky Charms once I get a hold of ya"
Me: " Oh but they're magically Delicious "
Then we both burst out laughing and she , all out of breath said.
Mom: "Yes well you'll be laughin' on the other side of yer face as soon as your father gets home"
She often used some "expressions or figures of speech" from her part of Ireland that didn't always translate well in America.
For instance when we were all teenagers (ready to mock anything) we were in the living room and heard her on the phone talking to a "discouraged" sister from our Congregation who's name was Sandy.
The conversation was winding down and to our horror (and delight) instead of saying something like "Well, hang in there Sandy" or "Keep your chin up Sandy" she said " Well Sandy...keep your pecker up"
We all broke up laughing and heard Sandy shreaking with laughter on the other end of the phone. Poor Mom had no idea what she had just said because where she was from that was a completely normal thing to say. (You should have seen her face when we told her what that means in America.) I'm guessing ol' Sandy's depression lifted quite suddenly after that one.
To me she was just regualar ol' Mom. But I remember her comming to my school at the beginning of each year to explain the whole JW stance on holidays and birthdays and being so embarrassed by that yet at the same time so proud later when the teacher would remark on how beautiful or gracious she was or the kids would ask me if my Mom was a Movie star.
Mom would be in her late 70's now and who knows what trials she would be facing had she lived. Avoiding all that I guess was the only good thing about having lost her so early.
Anyway, like I said, we had moments of great fun and it helps to remember the good stuff.