My Mamaw

Next Saturday is my Mamaw's 85th birthday. My Mamaw has been a constant inspiring presence in my life for as long as I have been alive. She is a strong, stubborn, intelligent woman. I hope that one day I understand as much about life and handle it with half as much grace as she does now. So in honor of Mamaw's birthday I will tell you a few things about her, a few reasons that I am so proud to be her granddaughter:

1) She graduated high school as Valedictorian of her class. In my humble opinion she is where all of the smart genes in my family originated. So I am very thankful for that. Hehe, well, for what little bit of it that came my way.

2) She is the best cook in the ENTIRE world. I swear to you...she can take a seed, plant it, water it, grow it into vegetable of choice, and then cook it in a way that is so simple and wonderful that it is almost Divine.

3)She is a cancer survivor! She fought the fight when she was in her late 70s. She didn't give up for even a minute and as far as I know she never once referred to herself as a victim. She has always been a survivor.

4) She raised 5 boys and 1 girl...and she lived to tell about it. One of those boys was my Dad, who I am fairly certain was no picnic, seeing as he is a hard headed stubborn mule...hmm, maybe that's where Super Z got it.

5) She was a working mother in rural Mississippi in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. If that ain't progressive I am not sure what is. She worked at a sewing plant until she retired in the eighties.

6) My Grandaddy died in 1983 and she still talks about him and things that they did together like it was yesterday.

7) She lost one of her sons in the 70s. Uncle Mike was in a car crash. I am sure that it must have almost killed her. But again, her strength got her through. I swear she is one of the strongest women ever.

8) She can quilt like nobody's business. If I had one week that I could spend doing whatever I wanted, I would go to Mamaw's and learn how to quilt.

9) She is stubborn and opinionated. She can be brutally honest. One of my favorite all time quotes was, "Serina you are pretty even though you are fat." What else can I say about that?

10) She has 15 grandchildren and 17 great grandchildren and she knows the name of every single one. She also knows that her forth oldest granddaughter loves butter beans and she makes it a point to make them whenever I am around.

11) She is one of my heroes.