Happy Mothers Day to Rosalie and all the other moms represented by board members

[Sam]

This is just nothing like a mom.  I remember thinking those words in a somewhat negative way at various junctures while I was a kid.  But now that she's gone and I'm writing our family history, I realize that my life wouldn't be half as fulfilled as it is had it not been for the wisdom, perseverance, support, and love my mom (and my dad) sent my way.

She had rheumatic fever as a child but still became the goalie on her high schools's field hockey team.  She bucked the authorities and became a school teacher during an era (World War II) in which, for some reason, our town would not allow married women to teach.  I was an only child, but our house was always the neighborhood hangout, and she evolved from den mother to bemused spectator.  She, more than any other living being, encouraged me to seek creativity in my writing.  She introduced me to E.B. White, for whom one of her relatives worked as a maid in West Brooklin, ME, and that was when I fell head over heels with writing.  She and my dad went shoulder to shoulder with me in encourage my allegiance to my biggest sports hero (and now great friend) from 1946 to the present.  She was the conductor when I formed my own swing band at age 14.

She and my dad scraped the money together in a little "vacation" envelope, and they took me to New York City (the first time they had ever been out of New England), and they created the travel monster who has resided in me ever since.  Both parents shared the ability to give me plenty of rope to live a life of trial and error; and they stayed just close enough to catch me if I expanded my list of stupid mistakes.  She was a great surrogate mother for both of my wives and never once questioned why I needed two.  Her grandchildren (my kids) worship her.  She worked until age 87, and they tried to induce her to return until she was well past 90.  She passed away, with nary a missing marble, at age 94, but not before she delivered a lecture, complete with all sorts of posters and teaching aids, on one of her life's passions (lady bugs—who new?) in her nursing home three weeks before she died.

Sorry for the diatribe about my own mother, but it's been an extremely useful experience to think back on all she has meant to me rather than simply to lay a wreath on her grave.  I recommend it to everyone.

God Bless Moms!

Sam

[RosalieTCeltics]

We wonder what life would have been like without a Mom like mine. She was an everyday housewife, chief cook and bottle washer!! Great wife to my Dad who loved her dearly and shared a wonderful life together. Great example for what life should be like. When my Grandmother got too old to handle the family at her house, it was my Mom who opened the doors every holiday, family party, cookout. Dad was right there with her. What an example she has set for all of us. Now that she is 94 going on 95, we all take over cooking and still get together.

So on this wonderful day I celebrate her, who knows when it will all end. For those who did not have this growing up, I am sorry for you It has been a wonderful life!

Rosalie