She spilled the beans.
Following are some remarkable things about her.
- Despite having a very hard childhood and no role models she raised two bright children and got them through college.
- Twenty or so years after the first 2 were born she was living with her husband on a farm. She looked like a typical farm wife. Heavy set. When she wasn't feeling well she went to the country doctor. You guessed it. She was very pregnant. Neither she nor the country doctor were sophisticated enough to worry about this pregnancy in her late 40s. He said, "Just go home and do what you normally do."
- So she (successfully) raised another child.
- Meanwhile her husband died. You would think she might throw in the towel. But her life took on new meaning.
- In her late 50s she learned to drive.
- Nobody knew that she had never graduated from high school until she studied and took her GED.
- She traveled with her girlfriends and family members. She went to Europe.
- She became president of her women's club. She was a leader in her church.
- Everybody loved her. Letters addressed to Aunt M and only the name of her medium sized city were delivered to her door.
- She was notoriously thrifty. She bought only necessities. Once, when she was visiting our family my son, who was on the high school track team, needed new running shoes. I balked at the price. She said nothing but purchased a very nice hand towel and presented it to him. I got the message.
Right up until her early 80s she was a delightful, funny, intelligent, gracious force to be reckoned with.
She helped shape my life.
