Sunday, May 10, 2009

Happy Mother's day to all! Miss ya mom!

It's mother day and my mother is gone. Mabel Marks/Powell passed away at 84 years of age while I was on the road working for the union almost 10 years ago. I had been helping with health care at her home before her health took a turn for the worse and she moved in with my sister Michelle in Sacramento. The day before my niece Victoria's wedding, she died of a massive stroke. I was in Ukiah at the time and I drove over to Sacramento in time to be with mom as she died. It was hard. My mom was a good hearted lady who was benevolent to the point of crazy. She would help people and never accept recompensing and told them to help others the same way. While she had 7 children of her own, she always was taking in stray people into her house. She worked at Disco and Bazar stores as a union retail clerk. She worked into her 70's often walking to work from Russ and Harrison to downtown Eureka. As a younger woman she was a wing walker and airplane pilot. She graduated college in Oklahoma and was a divorced university school marm when she met my father, Army Major James Marks. I was mom's 7th child and my dad's 6th. After my dad passed the bar and became a lawyer, he followed his friend James McKittrick to Eureka. My father was McKittricks commanding officer and became his partner later.

The picture is my mom, Jacob and Jordan and a younger Samoasoftball. Miss you mom. You were so awesome!

4 comments:

Tapperass said...

Great post!

rick mitchell said...

What a great way to remember and honor your mother Richard.

Carol said...

Nice post, Richard, and a nice way to remember your mom!

Anonymous said...

I hate piling on but I agree with all the former posts wholeheartedly.