Sunday, May 10, 2015

❤️


This is my favorite picture of my mom. 
This is how I always saw her, even at the end.



I'm also remembering our dear Nana, with my children above.
And below is my mom with her four oldest grandchildren.
My husband and I were blessed with good mothers.




And here's one more, my grandmother, with all her grandchildren up to Maureen, who is four years older than me. Eighteen more grandchildren were born after these, the first ten. Been looking for an excuse to run this picture. Today is the day. This extraordinary woman started the whole train rolling. She is the one who instilled in her nine children the gospel of devotion to family. The lesson took, and continues down through the generations. I am said to look like her, which despite the fact that we both have the weight struggle, I consider to be a supreme compliment and privilege. She is legendary. She made my mom.



30 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. John, my mom was 57 in that photo. I just turned 58. Blows my mind, really.

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  2. Oh my darling! Those pictures are priceless and your grandmother- my goodness! She is a matriarch for the ages. All those beautiful children, the pearls around her neck...
    Love.
    I have been thinking of you so much the past couple of days, wondering if Mother's Day was going to be difficult for you, knowing that at the very least, it was going to be a most tender day. Please know I love you and I honor you as a mother and I honor your foremothers, too.

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    1. Darling Mary, i think your description is perfect, it was a tender day. I had a good cry but it wasn't a broken cry, just a very clean, grateful. loving one for the blessing of having has THIS mother. Thank you for the good energy you beamed my way, thank you for being my sister spirit. Love.

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  3. I love your mother's dynamite smile. Beautiful pictures, all of them. Hugs to you. Happy Mother's Day.

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    1. Andrea, i love these photos. I've run all of them, but for the last one before, but they do bear repeating. I hope you had a great mother's day. I know you are a wonderful mother.

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  4. You are a lucky woman in so many ways...Thanks for sharing your mother and grandmother here today.

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    1. e, I am lucky. I have always believed that I was born under a lucky star, and nothing, no misfortune or melancholy, can dissuade me from this belief! Thank you for being here, my friend.

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  5. So beautiful. Happy Mother's Day, Angella!

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  6. Beautiful photos of a beautiful family. Amazing how family just keeps going and growing.

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    1. Kristin, your family is like that; the generations are just fanning out and staying connected in a beautiful way. You are a large part of that. You are probably like my grandmother in your family, the one who set the tone.

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    2. I would like to think I am, but I don't think I'm that good! I do my best though.

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  7. Is it abnormal that we love her, too? Happy Mother's Day to you and yours, on earth and in heaven.

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    1. Aww Kimberly, no, not at all. I love your boys like you wouldn't believe! Hope you had a great mother's day!

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  8. Replies
    1. Betsy, thank you! Although I had nothing to do with it, and would have loved to have been standing in that shower of gorgeousness when it was being handed out! I am lucky anyway...

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    2. You were! You are gorgeous too!!

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  9. incredible photographs! and interesting to me, now that i have met you in person, i see such a strong resemblance to your mother, a quality that is more elusive in still photographs of you.
    i hope you had a wonderful mother's day, despite the sadness and loss; you are such a superlative mother yourself. xo

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    1. susan, your comment made me pause, made the world hush, so taken i was with your sense that I resemble my mother. i don't really see it in photographs either, but people often tell me i look like her, and it perplexes me. but you see it too. to me, it is a blessing. I carry her still in my very self. i love that thought. thank you.

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  10. What a beautiful family. And what a tribute to strong, beautiful, loving women! Passing down strong family bonds is so important in this time of fragmented family structures.

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    1. Nancy, my grandmother did something right, because the sense of family she instilled in her nine children had endured in the generations after them. We are now four generations removed from my grandmother and the closeness and sense of family bond is a strong as ever. Welcome back to blogland!

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  11. Your mom was so regal. She had poise like a royal. Just lovely.

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  12. I clearly missed the party of exclamations here, so I'll add my own. What beauty and joy and deep, deep comfort!

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    1. Elizabeth, the deepest comfort. Yes. Love to you dear friend.

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  13. Terrific photos, of course. You have such good family pictures.

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    1. Steve, I have always loved family photos and growing up I was famous for filching them from relatives albums. They didn't object because they knew I would keep them safe! And I have.

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