"Happy Birthday" to my MOM!

Pictures of my mom.  Left: when she was courting my dad and on the right, as a baby.  I'm not sure about the shoes.  She actually did watercolor of the pictures which, because of the era, were black and white.

March 29, 1914 is the day my mom, Evelyn Marguerite Gilman Gardner was born.  It would be her 98th birthday but she went to her heavenly home on February 6th, 1994 at the age of 79.  She had been fighting a long, difficult battle with a type of leukemia.  My mom was the perfect example of a farmwife and mother.  The only other work she did was teach piano lessons which earned her some extra money over the years. She was an excellent cook, seamstress, pianist, gardener, everything a farmwife would do . . . along with being the devoted wife to my dad, the hardworking farmer and mother to six of her own children and two foster children.   Mom knew how and taught us to sew, can, preserve, butcher chickens,  garden, bake, embroider, pull weeds, pick fruit  .  .  . well, the list goes on and on.  She loved music and helped four of six children learn music, all becoming very accomplished pianists, my older brother and I also learning to play the organ.  I also became a piano instructor, and occasionally, when my mom had a student that attained a certain advanced stage she would send them to me for further instruction.  What a compliment that was to me.  

Mom loved her family, she was just tickled with her grandchildren and "doted" on them.  She was a devoted wife and my parents celebrated 60 years marriage in December of 1993, just a couple months before mom went "home".   My mom loved the Lord and trained all of her children up in the Word of God and to love and serve the Lord.  

I miss her!   Happy Birthday, Mom!   Love you!