It’s 5:30 AM Sunday March 13, 1966, the 72nd day of the year 1966. An extremely cold morning.
The US president was Lyndon B. Johnson. Between Eastern Taiwan and Japan’s westernmost island Yonaguni an 8.0 magnitude earthquake had just taken place, but in a rural town of Georgia an 18-year woman was giving birth for the first time. That 18-year old woman was my mom. Fifty- two years, five months, 8 days, 15 hours and 22 minutes ago (plus or minus), a legend was born! Me. LOL. But I don’t want to talk about me, I want to talk about that 18-year old.
First off, I never would have imagined in a thousand years that my mom is only 18 years older than me. She is the wisest person I know. I remember when I was a child, she used to say to me “I know and see everything that you do, so don’t be a bad girl; I got eyes in the back of my head” I believed this until I was twelve years old. I finally figured out it was humanly impossible to have eyes in the back of her head, but I still didn’t know how she figured out everything I did, and even some stuff I was contemplating doing. She also used to tell me I know everything about anything, so if I had a question, or somebody I knew had a question, I would tell em, just ask my mama, she knows everything. That part I still believe.
She’s very special. I never met another human being who even comes close to who she is. She grew up in circumstances that I would not have been able to grow up in; those circumstances would have been tests that I can assure you I would have failed, and miserably. She lost both of her parents before I was born, and she was raised by her oldest sibling and only sister, who had six boys of her own to raise. She told me many times, that when it came time for her to give birth to me, she didn’t even know where the baby was coming from, because having those talks, sex talks, was considered a taboo, which was frowned upon and extremely objectionable. The only other thing that was frowned upon more was the fact that my dad and she was not married, but still I came into this world through a willing vessel.
I have seen her walk through many trials and tribulations. She made what I’m sure of, many mistakes; I know this because I am now a parent, and I made / make plenty of them, because no one is perfect. I never figured out how we had so little, but I had an abundance of everything I needed. I didn’t have everything I wanted, but I never went without.
As you can probably tell by now this is a tribute to my mama. She celebrated her 71st birthday August 18th. She’s truly an amazing woman whom I admire and adore. There have been too many to count by hand the number of times I’ve used her as inspiration. I thank God every day of my life for her. Happy Birthday Mama. I love you.
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