Remembering Mom

Collage of my mother, Elsie Price

 October 13th was my Mom's birthday. She was born in 1920 in Baltimore, Maryland.  While still young she moved to Philadelphia, PA, where she enjoyed frilly dresses, city parks, and the urban way of life.  Then as a young teenager, she was uprooted and found herself living in a primitive house near Roberts, Montana--close to Custer's Last Stand.  Can you imagine how today's teenagers would react?  But she loved school, studied hard, became an accomplished pianist, then when she was 19 moved to Wyoming where she worked on a Dude ranch close to Yellowstone Park, met my Dad, was married, and raised seven children.  Her home then was a log ranch house (no indoor plumbing).  She baked bread in a coal burning oven, grew a huge garden but intertwined the rows of vegetables with rows of flowers, canned enough food to last through the winter, sewed all the kids clothes, but still found time to read, crochet, sing and play the piano. 

Mom's favorite flowers

By today's standards, she lived in poverty, but never complained.  She endured many hardships--losing her husband when the youngest child was only two, then having to work outside the home to support the family, in charge of the care of one child severely crippled by polio.  But she was a happy person, feeling that she was truly blessed. What an awesome example for her children!