Happy Birthday Mom

My Mom would have turned 90 today. Born at the tail end of 1919, she missed World War I, but was present for almost a century of amazing inventions (affordable automobiles, commercial airplanes, television, computers); medical breakthroughs (which helped to prolong her own life to age 88); economic hardships ( she was a child of the Depression - the BIG one); and raised six children during a time when Moms stayed home and took care of their own kids, and Dads went to work.

She experienced World War II at home by using her ration books for sugar and meat and gasoline, and listening to updates of the War on the radio and during pre-movie newsreels. While her husband, Herman, was deferred for service because of the number of his dependents, her brothers, Dayle and Kenneth, were serving in the Army in various places around the world. War seemed to be a constant during her lifetime - World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq I and Iraq II. She was very proud of her daughter, Janet, and sons-in-law - Joe, Tom, George and Larry who served in the military, as well as grandchildren, Martha, Joe, and Anthony (Molly's husband).

During her lifetime she watched sixteen presidents come and go - starting with Woodrow Wilson and ending with George W. Bush (who tied with Richard Nixon as her least favorite..) She was alive when the Internal Revenue Service started collecting federal taxes, when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, when Medicare was started, and when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.

All of these happenings, though, seem puny in regard to the full life she lived on this earth and how, during those 88 years, she truly enriched the lives of her family and helped make us the people we are today.

We sure miss you, Mom. Happy 90th Birthday!