A Gracious Plenty

Mimi married when she was very young--maybe 19 or 20.
When Papa died, they had been married for 70 years!

She had Carlene when she was 23; Carlene had me when she was 23; and I had Day when I was 23.

At 20, Carlene married my daddy, Lloyd.  When he died at 80, they had been married for 57 good years.  I wondered if she would ever be the same again, and for a while, she was sadly changed.  But now (and he would be proud of this) she is her vibrant self.

Here is the picture of Mimi as a young mother.  She had five children, but the oldest  died when he was ten.  The remaining four are still living, though the two sons are not as healthy as their sisters.

Far left: Carlene (the oldest of the four, born in 1925)

Next to her: Dot (six years younger)

The little one is David; the taller son is Richard.

Papa is at the top of the photo, and Mimi is far right.

Mimi was an orphan and she lived in an orphanage until she was adopted and moved to Georgia.

Toward the end of her life, after Papa died, she used to take us out to Cracker Barrel when we visited her in Georgia.  Here she is with Will, my son, when he was a teenager:

When it was time to leave Cracker Barrel and we offered to pay, she'd say, "It will be my pleasure."

(Until Papa died, she'd always cooked full meals for us at their house: fried chicken and macaroni and cheese and butter beans and corn.)

She was one of those grandmothers who wanted you to have at least two servings of everything.  "Oh have some more!" she'd say--when you were too stuffed to move.

But when she'd had enough, she always said, "Thank you, but I've had a gracious plenty."