MY MOM

If roses grow in Heaven, Lord
please pick a bunch for me. Place them in my Mother's arms and tell her
they're from me. Tell her I love her and I miss her, and when she turns
to smile, place a kiss upon her cheek and hold her awhile. Because
remembering her is easy, I do it everyday. But there is an ache within
my heart... that will never go away. --- I love you Mom & miss you so
very much.

My Mom just recently passed away. It was so sudden that I still can't believe it. I wanted to post these pictures in the newspaper to celebrate her life and her love of travel and painting. I was only able to put in two pictures so I decided to put all of them here as a memorial to Mom (Betty) and also to my Dad (Chuck) and Mom's sister  (Phyllis) who also passed away over the past 5-12 years.  Mom was the youngest of three children. When she was young, the family did a lot of traveling.  Later on when her older brother joined the Air force, the family spent most weekends in Toledo, OH taking care of her Mother's inherited home where they all hoped to live one day. 

Mom at 10 and 15 years old. 

Mom with me as a baby. She liked teddy bears and did her entire life.  She had a collection of teddy bears of more than 60.  The only pre-requisite for a teddy bear to be at this house was that it had to be "cute". 

Dad, Mom and me.

This is my Aunt Phyllis and my Mom.

Mom and Dad in their new home way back in 1973.

My Dad won this huge teddy bear at Opryland when they came to visit me when I lived in Nashville, TN.  Mom and Dad loved to visit Nashville (Dad was a huge country music fan). They always stopped at Renfro Valley on their way.

We all went to Cypress Gardens and San Francisco one year.

I never knew Mom was such a fan of John Wayne, Marty Robbins and Gene Autry. I knew she grew up going to the theater to see their movies. Mom and Dad visited all around where John Wayne made his old movies out West.  Mom started collecting all of John Wayne's movies and spent the past few years watching them over and over again.   

She loved to paint and here are two small examples of what she could do.  She did portraits the best and when I get a few scanned, I will put them up here.  She did a portrait of Marty Robbins and Gene Autry and sent them to them years ago and received very nice letters in reply.

This was Mom and me about 20 years ago. I wish I had more recent pictures of Mom but she refused to let anyone take her picture any more.  Such a loss.  But, frankly, to me, she never did age and so this picture is a good one as if it was just taken yesterday. 

I will always love and miss you Mom and hold my memories of you close to my heart. 

You were always there for me and you were the Wind Beneath My Wings. I think of you every day.

About ten years ago, while I was first working on my own website, Mom wanted one of her own. So began betsybee25's website.  I hope you will visit it to share the fun she had with her teddy bears and experiments she came up with to share with everyone.  It is a child friendly site with a special teddy bear story that she and my Dad made up along with experiments Mom found in kids science books.  Click here to visit her site.