A Tribute to my Mother - Day Two

Growing up, our grandparents lived too far away for us to visit them, and being from a large family, this included the set of grandparents that lived just over in Utah (we lived in California at the time) because it was too expensive for us to travel to visit them very often. Still, I remember a few times when both sets of grandparents came out for some visits, and it was wonderful then. But sometimes, you just miss having a grandma or a grandpa near by.

Enter my mother. She is a person who can see some needs and bring people together. My mom would always seem to find a few old women who needed extra help, or care, or visits, or whatever, and she would unofficially adopt them. I can't tell you how many grandma's we had in our house, but there are two that I just adored to the ends of the earth.

First, there was Grandma Ballew, her first name was Violet. We used to go and visit her quite regularly and she would always have these huge bags of Circus Peanuts. Now, that wasn't actual peanuts, but fluffy, sticky, marshmallow-type light orange candy in the shape of peanuts. All of the kids would go crazy for those things, except me. I ate one to be polite because I really didn't like the flavor or the texture of them. I loved going to visit her because she was this tiny little thing that was so polite and happy and wonderful. It wasn't until I was a teenager that I came to see just how much I cared for her, and truly understood why my mother would adopt her as her own. I remember going over to babysit her while her older daughter (who was in her 40's or 50's) would leave on long trips. Grandma Ballew didn't like being alone, and she was getting older. She would forget where she was and it really scared her. One night, I was sleeping over and I heard a loud crash in the middle of the night. I raced around to see what had happened, and there stood Grandma Ballew in the hallway, horror on her face and tears streaming down her cheeks as she stared at a shattered glass vase on the floor. She looked at me and said, "Oh, Crystal! She is going to be so mad at me! I broke it. It was an accident, but she is going to be so mad!!" It darn near broke my own heart. I told her not to worry, made sure she wasn't cut, then carefully helped her back to bed. I made sure she went back to sleep before I went back to the hallway and cleaned up the broken glass. I couldn't fall back asleep after that. The next morning when he daughter came back into town I told her that I accidentally broke her vase and told her I would be more than willing to pay for it. She said not to even bother because it was really no big deal. But I couldn't help but wonder how she would have reacted had she known Grandma broke it. It seemed she was more of a burden on her. I am so thankful to my mother for bringing Grandma Ballew into our lives.

Another woman was Peggy. Man! I can just see here now with her little handbag, and her straw hat and scarf. Walking to the bus stop to run some errands. I can hear her laugh and see her face as clear as day. She lived next door to us and she was over at our house for everything, which we loved. She was just funny and big and wonderful and I thought she was great. She wasn't afraid to speak her mind, but was afraid of hurting someones feelings, and her friends meant the world to her...along with her cats and her wildflowers in the front yard that she wouldn't let anyone touch. Ah, she was great. My mom made her a hat one with this bright metallic pink ribbon along the hat right above the rim. It was so loud and boisterous that I didn't think Peggy would even wear it, but she did. She pretty much wore that hat out, and you could see her coming too. She would get so excited over the littlest things, too. We would run over to her house and invite her over for a bar-b-Que and her little mouth would gap open, a look of surprise on her face, and say something like "What a wonderful idea! That's so exciting!! I'll be over in just a bit." and sometimes she would be there hours before the actual event started, but she was part of our family and so we enjoyed having her around. I remember one time, in high school, that I was in a musical. My parents and Peggy came, and they brought me two of the biggest bouquets of flowers. I remember my friend Cindy running into the choir room (we used it as a backstage since it was right next to the stage in the drama room) carrying the flowers and calling out "Crystal!! You got flowers!!!" We were both so excited! And everyone was jealous that I had them. I'm so grateful to my mom for bringing Peggy into our lives as well. She was such a joy!

My mom is great about helping other people, and she never thinks twice about it. It is because of her that I have met some truly wonderful people who have changed my life for the good. Without her, I never would have had the opportunity to learn from them, to have them in my lives, or to love them. I love my mom for doing that.