If you’ve been following my blog for the last couple of years you may remember I lost my mom in January 2014. A day doesn’t go by when I don’t think of her. I’m thankful for the wonderful memories I have and as yesterday was Mother’s Day I thought I would write a post in thanks for my mom.
My mother was the oldest of four. As the oldest she shouldered a lot of responsibility especially after her mother was injured in a sailing accident.
Tragedy didn’t end there. She lost both a brother and sister when they were quite young. A drunk driver killed her sister when she was in high school. Seven years later her brother was killed in a automobile accident. My grandmother spent the last years of her life in much pain and finally passed away when she was in her early 60s.
However my mother was the most optimistic person I ever knew. She had a strong sense of family and instilled in us all a love of nature and appreciating the beauty of the world around us.
She was a true inspiration and a friend to many. She believed that volunteers formed the fabric of a community and helped to set up a volunteer bureau in my hometown of Guilford, CT.
Her proudest accomplishments included the work she did to preserve land in Connecticut. She organized the formation and incorporation of Guilford Recycling, twelve years before recycling became mandated by the state.
Funds earned from the sale of the communities’ donated glass and aluminum were then donated to the Guilford Land Conservation Trust (GLCT) for open space acquisition.
From 1984-96 she worked for The Nature Conservancy as Director of the Land Protection and as Director of the Land Trust Service Bureau. My mother was responsible for securing protected status for over 7,000 acres in CT.
I grew up recycling and composting and learning to live on less and leave less waste. I spent many hours walking the woods with my mom learning about trees and birds and taking care of the land around us. To this day we keep a bird book near our kitchen window so we can identify any bird that comes to our feeder. Something my mother was always doing!
Before she passed away she came to visit and immediately she was in her gardening clothes to help me in my large vegetable garden. She so enjoyed sitting on the steps of our chicken coop with Blondie, our friendly Buff Orphington.
I have shared several of her recipes on my blog including her famous granola.
She was 82 years old when she passed away but a very young 82. She was active until the day she went into the hospital working to organize gardens in the retirement community she had moved in to.
As I said I miss her every day, but I will strive to carry on all that she taught me. In the fall we visited my daughter who lives outside of Seattle, WA. While there I realized that my daughter carries on many of my mother’s traits. It was almost like having my mother there with us. It was wonderful to know that not only did my mother impart many lessons to me but she also instilled much wisdom into her grandchildren. For that I am so grateful. Her life lives on.
Nancy on the Home Front 