Happy Mother's Day Mom

Here's a picture of the most caring, loving, hard working, cheerful, talented, honest person in the world. I was lucky enough to be born of her, and am grateful to this day for everything she did for us.
This picture was taken when we lived up on the Crick maybe 3 or 4 years before my Dad died and just before we had to sell the place and move into town. She loved the Ranch and would smile and say "Jimmy, you'll do that some day!" when i would tell her that some day, some how I'd buy the ranch back for her and us. Well, its heartbreaking to say that i didn't make it in her lifetime, but the ranch is back in the family now and Mom is certainly there with us. Her spirit fills that place.
Looking back, and being almost an adult now (don't know that I'll ever really grow up), I can appreciate just how incredably hard it was for her after my Dad died. We really had nothing; the ranch was sold, we had to sell the house in Northport, and move to Colville where Mom could find work. We were so po, we couldn't afford the other two letters (got that from Drew the Dude). Yet Mom never let Sandy and i go without. How she did it is still a mystery to me. I know my older grown brothers and sisters helped alot. But still at night, on weekdays, alone with just Sandy and me...I remember times getting up in the night to see her sitting at the kitchen table holding her hanky, with a pile of darning in front of her and a worried, tearful look that she'd manage to quickly hide. She worked so hard to make ends meet, yet always had time to fix wonderous meals, tell us our favorite stories (she knew "Little Orphant Annie" by heart..."and the Gobblins'll git you if you don't watch out"). She sang like an angel and loved to get her kids to sing all the old favorites at family gatherings. The Mom Mother's day was invented for.
Oh how I miss her.