Mama: My Greastest Gift ~ Pawprints and Purrs

On March 21, 1931 a dark-eyed, dark-haired newborn girl child christened Esther Lee Savage began a humble life born of poor cotton farmer parents from the flat, unyielding soil of southeastern Arkansas. She was brought up during an era when cotton was back-breakingly, manually tended under a hot, harsh Southern sun. From the time her tiny four year old hands could hold a hoe handle until she was 18 years old, she worked the cotton fields - tilling, planting, chopping, picking, and ginning - in Arkansas, and later in her childhood, the Mississippi delta lands along with the rest of her family. Farming cotton was a hard, brutal means to eke out a living.

She was the third child and the third daughter of five children. Twenty years later she, in turn, gave birth to her first-born child. I am that child and she is my mother, my inspiration, my greatest gift. This is my tribute to her gentle, loving, living presence. She is the heart of my existence, the soul of my being.

22 Years Old: A Young Wife and Mother

For over fifty years, Mama has been my role model. Though I've walked behind her, along side her, and in my foolhardy youth, thought I walked way, way ahead of her, never once have I thought I can or could become the woman she is. Mama is what Southern womanhood is all about: a woman filled with quiet elegance, grace and beauty, soft speech, brimming over with generosity, and a deep spirituality. She is slow to speak in anger and quietly speaks of her love and empathy for others, ever mindful of Southern good taste and manners at all times.

She's led a rich, fullfilling life, though the roadways she's been forced to walk too, too often would have been a torturous journey for most of those much stronger than she. Mama's steely strength derives from her faith in her God and her loyalty to Him, her family, and her closest friends. A petite woman, she has carried pretty much alone on her own shoulders during her 70 years her family's responsibilities, heartbreak, and pain. Even as a very, very young child on her mother's farm, she was an individual with strong character, determined and much more resourceful than any adult, including my grandparents. Mama is the most dedicated and determined person, male or female, whom I have yet to meet.

Mama is considered by most who meet her as somewhat a perfectionist in all she does. She doesn't have the arrogance or the self-centeredness most perfectionists project, however. She does the very best she can and judges herself harshly if whatever task she undertakes doesn't meet her own stringent standards.

My love for nature is obviously inherited from both of my parents, but the deep roots stem from Mama. (A brief aside: my beloved, late father was a native Louisianan and all his children were born here.) She always had a large, bountiful vegetable garden and productive fruit trees wherever we lived. She would can and freeze practically all we ate during my childhood. Until we lost my father in 1992, she continued the planting and cultivation of a huge vegetable garden each year.

Where Craig and I live now has been quite frequently praised as "Esther's Paradise" by friends and neighbors. Two years ago, 1999, Craig and I bought my parents' old place where my mother continued to live for another eight years after Daddy passed away. I love it here, for her 20 years' work of gardening and yard work still greets me each time I step outdoors. People are right - it is a paradise, cool and inviting on even the sultriest summer days amongst towering Southern pines, Chinese tallows, fruit trees, and redbuds with a large old magnolia tree shading the front of the house. The spring and summer air is filled with the sweet scents of whatever is blooming in flowerbeds back-dropped with azaleas that cover the grounds. Recently Craig asked her what her favorite flower is. Her response was, "I love them all."

Mama is an accomplished seamstress and needlewoman. Until I was nearly 18 years old, she had made nearly every stitch of clothing I wore. Not only was our clothing lovingly created and made, but Mama's simplest curtains to heavy drapes were stitched at her old Singer sewing machine. As a young child, she was intrigued by the various methods of needlework. Most of her handwork was self-taught. Long after her day's work is done, she "rests" by tatting, knitting, crocheting, embroidering, cross-stitching, quilting, or rug making.

41 Years Old: Finishing Touches
On My Wedding Day. She Designed
And Made the Gown That She's Wearing
Of Soft Yellow Lace Over Off-White Lace.

My Wedding Gown and Veil Were Made by Mama

I'm Proudly Wearing the Wedding Dress
And Veil Mama Designed and Made - 1972.

She also dearly loves to cook. Through the years of adulthood, the aroma from good homecooking will send me nostalgically back into Mama's kitchen of my childhood. My beloved parents physically worked hard, so Mama prepared meals that were always well-balanced, hearty, and filling: full course meals with desserts three times a day. Even the breakfast table had a bejeweled array of jams, jellies, and preserves awaiting to be slathered onto hot buttered toast or thick, fluffy biscuits. As a child, sweets usually came from Mama's kitchen rather than the grocery.

Her baking was and still is heavenly - golden brown loaves of feather-light breads, rich fruit cobblers, deep-fried turnovers and melt-in-your-mouth yeast donuts, moist cakes piled high with seven minute frosting that she whipped into standing peaks of creamy froth with a fork (I was over 18 years old when Mama received her first electric mixer), brownies, cookies and teacakes, pralines and divinity, peanut brittle, creamy fudge, and sinfully luscious pies. The latter was Daddy's favorite dessert. When asked what was his favorite pie, he would respond that he had two favorites - hot and cold.

45 Years Old: Wife, Mother, and Grandmother

Mama is very much a private soul, treasuring her privacy and respecting the privacy of others, including the privacy of her six children. Her friendships are deeply cherished and strong. Of her many virtuous characteristics, her steadfast loyalty is foremost, extending to her worship, family, and friends.

She single-handedly cared for my elderly, invalid father for fifteen years, ten of those while he was bedridden. As he lay on his deathbed, his final words to his devoted help mate were, "You've been a good wife." No more meaningful words could have been stated to a still young woman over 31 years his junior, who loved and cared so deeply, standing by the father of her children all their married life, more than half of which he was seriously ill. Mama, by the way, has never remarried, nor has she dated another man during her nearly ten years of widowhood.

In February 2001, six weeks before her 70th birthday, Mama had an ischemic stroke which left her with expression aphasia. Through speech therapy and "home schooling" she had to learn to talk, read, and write again. She has regained 85% of her speech and thought processing abilities. She was and is an outstanding pupil - eager and determined to recover as soon as it is physically possible for her to do so. Once more, her strong inner strength and her deep faith in her God pulled her through a frightfully emotionally and physically draining ordeal.

70 Years Old
Widow, Mother, and Grandmother

Through the years, Mama has been not only my mother, but a wonderfully caring friend and loving companion. We share the same deep love of gardening, needlework, and cooking ... and laughter.

A day with Mama is filled with laughter and joy - we cut up as if we are two 16 year old girls instead of two grown women aged 70 and 50 - giggling, talking and giggling some more - always with laughter seeping into our daily tasks. I treasure the days spending time with my mother.

Mama is a rich source of inspiration, empathy, and love rolled into a tiny dynamic package of compassionate humanity. At my birth, Mama presented me with more than life; she gave me the greatest gift of all: HERSELF.

Mama, thank you for your years of self-sacrifice in giving me life and being so much a part of it from prenatal and infancy on into my present golden years. Without you, I would not be the me I am today. I love you, Mama.