January 31, 2015
After I was older, she babysat for Ina and David Kelley, Karen Duncan, Wendy and Cindy Morrow Dr. Kellogg, who had an adult daughter that needed someone to be with her, and Mrs. Ford, who had Parkinson's Disease.
My mother was a kind, gentle, and loving mother. I thank God for the mother that He gave me.
She, my brothers and I went to the Raisin Valley Friends Church together. She was the example of showing us how important it was to go to church and to have Jesus in our hearts.
My mother would spend her evenings writing to my brothers when they were in the service. She may not have finished a letter each day, but worked on the letters. My mother would fall asleep while sitting in her chair. I always wondered how anyone could fall asleep while sitting up. I found out when I got older and would do the same thing. It must be hereditary.
In those days women didn't wear jeans or slacks. My mother always wore a housedress and an apron and a good dress if she went to church or for a special occasion.
My mother had 27 first cousins and I had 1 first cousin, My Uncle Horace and Aunt Lois Crawford had 1 daughter, Laura. She died in December 2011.
My Grandma Crawford fell and broke her hip the summer of 1962 and died April 1, 1963. Rev. Lawrence Cox at her funeral said about her that you never heard her complain. He mentioned the scripture about being content with what we have and said that about her. That was such a true statement about her. I have thought about that a lot and realize it is such a good memory of her.
In May of 1957 the farm was sold (actually traded with Noble and Myrtle Poe) for a house at 177 Bailey Drive. She lived there with my Grandmother Crawford (her mother) and Aunt Lucy came to live with her. She moved from there to the 5th floor of the Kiwanis High Rise Apartment Building on College Avenue. One day she left her apartment to get the mail and couldn't find her way back. One of the hardest things of my life to do was to move her to an Adult Foster Care Home. She did not understand why I was selling her furniture and moving her from a place that she liked. She went to an Adult Foster Home on Clinton Street, then Broad Street, and M34, (all the same family) and to Provincial House, where she died April 11, 1988. She was 13 years in a nursing home and the last 2 or 3 years did not know me.