Dear Mom,

I thought a good way to let anyone reading this blog know what an unbelievable mother and person you were would be to ask each of your daughters and sons to tell me what thing or things they most remembered about you while growing up.

Not surprisingly, I hit the jackpot.  Everyone responded with detailed memories that we had of the things that you did for us through the years.  Linda recalled you making pies on Saturday nights, while watching the Carol Burnett Show, and marveled at how you would serve all of us dinner, especially when we were younger and smaller going right over our heads from the stove to the table with plates of hot food.

Sheila recalled when you would make cookies(for us) a couple of times a week and the chair in the living room that you sit when you either watched the news or did your knitting.

Among the memories that Owen recalls were you yelling upstairs to us(kids) to see what kind of sandwich we wanted for school. He also remembered when we would walk down to Howards’ to get new shoes and remembered some dinner favorites, including pot roast and goulash on Sundays and the great Christmas lasagnas she made year after year.

Kathy said she remembers you hanging our clothes from the clothesline after doing washes, drinking your coffee. For Sharon, it was memories of you walking our old dog Toby with nary a leash- because he was such a good dog that he always stayed close-by…except when saw Mr. Cracco. Poor guy!

Kevin recalled a couple of things, beginning with a paper route(Hartford Courant) that he did with Owen and of how, on that very first day, you helped them stuff the papers with ads and how sweet you were to them.

Kev also told me a story of how him, Steve and Owen would stick their chests out and bump into you sometimes, at which time you would both giggle a bit and then tell you guys to stop “in sheer panic.’ Kevins’ words not mine.

Among the memories that Steve had of you included washing his hair in the sink and checking his face to see how well he had washed it. If he wasn’t clean enough, Steve recalled how you would say,”You look gray” and then with a warm washcloth, wash his face.

Tricia’s memories included you going grocery-shopping each Friday-with Aunt Sandy- and how you would always get a couple different kinds of candy for us. I loved that! She also remembered how, usually at the dinner table, Kevin would make Steve laugh and you’d send Steve to his room.

Maureen said she recalls you reading “Jack and the Beanstalk” to her over and over after she was hit by a car and how, when she said that you might have missed a part, you would gently go back and read that part for her.

For me, mom, the good memories I have of you are plentiful, but the best ones I have of you were being a vocal fan at any game that I ever played in. You’re love of sports was quite obvious but, well, for every one of us, you always knew how to relate to whatever we liked to do.

As the title of this blog says, I see you as an angel. It’s hard for me to believe that you have been gone for 30 years. Even so, I am able to smile as I think of you because I know that you always did everything you could for us and were always going to love us no matter how mad we sometimes made you. To me anyway, that is a a huge reason why we all turned out to be decent people. Thank you Mom!

Love,

Dan