Mother was a very devout woman. She was sweet and loving and always ready to help those in need. She was a member of the Second Baptist Church in Mt Vernon IL. She was a Sunday School Teacher and a member of the Ladies Study Group of that church. She was a member of the Choir and my Father led the singing at the church for years. She read the bible every day.

She didn’t seem to dwell in the past and told me very little about her childhood. I know she loved us and our Father very much and made a good home for us. She worked outside the home when she needed to but was a full time mother most of the time. If we needed something special for school she found a way to supply it.

Mother made nearly all our clothes and she sewed for all her grandchildren too. She made the cutest little dresses. Especially baby dresses with smocking at the neck. She was an excellent seamstress and made dresses for ladies of the Church to help pay the bills. Dad always said if there was a bill that was worrying him that the Lord always provided the money and that was true. I saw it happen many times. Dad was asked to go to Revivals at other Churches to lead the singing. Many times those churches would take up a collection and send the money to Dad at a later date, or one of the ladies at the church would employ Mother to make a dress for her. what’s more it would often be the very amount he needed for the bill.

She suffered a stroke in 1963 or 64. She was just learning to walk again when she fell and broke her hip. They put a pin in it but she never walked again. I loved my mother with all my heart and wish she hadn't been taken from us so early, but she had a stroke in the hospital after an operation and would have been paralyzed if she had lived, so I suppose it was for the best. I know she is in a better place and her pain and suffering are over, but I miss her to this day.

I never heard mother say a bad word about anyone and, she warned me all the years I was growing up that if you can't say something good about someone, don't say anything at all ! Not to participate in idle gossip, the pot calls the kettle black. If you point your finger at someone there are three pointing back at YOU ! Don't hurt someone it only comes back to haunt you. If you tell a lie you will have to tell many more to get out of it. Always consider the consequences of your actions, they will shape your future. These are things my mother taught me and I lived by them as well as I could all my life. The best thing she taught me was to live by the Golden Rule. {Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.} I believe that is how we should live. These are things Mother taught me and I tried to live by them all my life.

Written and Submitted by Nancy E. Davis
Feb. 27, 2008