Mama and Me.....Continued

Mama was the kind of person that did as she liked about things, and didn't care what anybody else thought or said.  I didn't have nearly as much starch in my backbone as she had, but she put up with me, anyway.  It seemed like her tough spirit and my.....well.....not nearly as tough spirit, worked well together.  I think that part of the reason that we became the best of friends after I got past my tumultuous teen years was that we were exact opposites. 

For example, she smoked, and I was into natural home remedies.  She told me once, "You'd better take down your shingle before you kill the entire family!"  In other words, I needed to quit playing doctor after I treated the King's gall bladder attack with apple cider vinegar.  Oops! 

Also, even in her younger years (those years of my childhood), she wasn't much of a go getter, and I am one of THOSE moms that wants to do everything.  One afternoon, during one of our rides around town, she sensed my urgency to finish the ride so that I could rush off to some obligation that I had for that day.  Annoyed, she turned to me and said, "I think that you have ADHD.  I think you've had it for years!  Next time you go to the doctor, you tell her to give you some medicine." 

In an emergency, Mama always knew what to do, but I tend to go completely crazy.  There was the time that something happened to my family that, at the time, seemed like the end of the world.  I called Mama, and when she answered the phone, I was so upset that I couldn't speak.  Those eyes in the back of her head must have been able to see through the phone, because she said, "It's ok, Baby.  Whatever it is.............just come on home." 

When I told her over the phone that we had decided to withdraw Melody from school for homeschooling, her frank reply was, "Well, that's just stupid!"  Yet, she still became my greatest ally in my efforts to homeschool while working overtime.   A lot of homeschooling went on at her kitchen table and in her living room floor accompanied by bowls of chocolate ice cream and cartoons.