Tribute to My Mom

Mary Layden Williams

10/13/22 - 1/09/12

There are many types of love, the love that God has for us, the love of a husband and wife, love of a parent for a child and of a child for their parents - plus many, many more.  I want to dedicate this card today to my mother, Mary Layden Williams.  They say when you become a mother it is to decide forever to have your heart  go walking around outside your body.    

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My mother lived an eventful life for all of her 89 years.  She grew up during the Great Depression and had "not so fond" memories of picking cotton as a young girl.   She  enrolled in the Army Nurse Corps during World War II.  After the war, she married my father in July of 1950 in a little Baptist church near where she grew up.  She gave birth to a daughter and an only child in March 1952.  She continued to nurse in a local hospital until I was older and then devoted herself to being a parent and homemaker.  My mother suffered emotional distress from all the casualties she encountered and was frequently a patient in various VA hospitals.   Other than these stays in the hospital, she lived a full and enriched life with a husband devoted to her, her daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren.  About five years ago my mother was admitted to a nursing home.  She fell and broke her hip and was never able to walk again unassisted and also suffered from dementia.  My mother and I were great friends and spent many hours together in her later life after I retired.  Some of my fondest  memories after she went to the nursing home are the car trips we made all over the county of her birth.  I think we traveled every road in Perquimans County. While driving, I would ask her if she knew where we were and she would say "no", to which I would reply "neither do I"!  We had a great laugh over this and also when I would ask her how old she was.  She never remembered and when I responded she would look at me in amazement and then we would laugh at that too.  

Thank you for taking the time to read my tribute.  I am thankful for all the prayers I have received from my blogging friends.