Happy Mother's Day

My mom was the roller skating terror of our town. The second of four girls and eventually a baby brother, she was a tom boy from day one.
When I was a teen, I got in to guns. Mom shot every one that I brought home. She was with out fear in that respect. Pretty good for an older gal. Mom was 42 when I was born. Dad was no spring chicken, he was about to be 52.
Lots of fond memories of mother. When I was in kindergarten, I remember her birthday. I asked how old she was, and she replied, "A hundred". I went to school that morning and told every one that mom turned a hundred! Smart kid I was! Gullible as all heck.
Two things that were inseparable with mother, coffee and cigarettes. We used to joke that she subsisted on them. Mom was never big,she reached 5 feet, but I think that was in heels. The caffeine and nicotine probably helped keep her weight down as well.
She started smoking when she was about ten. Kept it up all her life. We could say smoking shortened her life, she died at 94, but her mother lived to only 101.
Mom brought nine of us little shits into the world. Lost several as well. At her 89th birthday she said that they had wanted a dozen, and with three miscarriages, she had that. My oldest brother then piped up and said he remembered at least five, so maybe it was a long dozen.
When Mom was pregnant with #5, the grandmothers got together and had that long birds and bees talk with mom dad, and a couple of the others who were being prolific breeders. "There are means to prevent that you know!" My uncle stood up and said, "Mother, I had no idea you felt that way. If you don't like grand kids, we certainly don't need to bring them to visit.  Grandma switched tunes faster than a Missouri toll boat operator. Josey Wales, eat yer heart out.
At any rate, rearing and raising us also took a toll on her. At 55, she buried the first of us, my little sister who perished in a car wreck. She was 17. I asked her a couple of years before her death how long it took her to get over Tammy's passing. She said it still haunted her.
We talk today about how parents should never have to bury their children, but that is bunk. Baby boomers are the first generation where that was not the norm. Before that, it was all too common. Tragedy visited often. I can remember attending a lot of funerals as a kid and teen. That's the price of a big family. I am glad to be part of one that is Yuge!