About her…

By: Betsey

I thought this was a good time to tell you a little bit more about my mom.

My mom is one if 5 kids. She has three brothers and one little sister who she adores and who is also her very good friend.  She and her sister were known to dance on tables at church New Year’s Eve parties… 😊 My mom also revered her dad, a very strong Italian man who stood up for everything he believed in.

My mom is beautiful. She had long jet-black hair and awesome style.  She used to make her own clothes and has always been the best dressed one in the room.

She met my dad in high school in a garage party.  Rumor has it that he was dancing with another girl and my mom told her to scram and the rest was history.

My mom had three daughters all four years apart (very organized of you, Mary).  She didn’t work when we were young but as we got older she served as a teacher’s aide at our school and worked at a decorating store in our home town. She later worked at Pottery Barn and even took on some small jobs helping people re-decorate their homes using items they already had.  My mom had a wonderful talent for decorating and she could make everything beautiful.  Our home was always clean and cozy and it was an amazing place to grow up.

When we were young, my dad would travel for work sometimes. When he was gone, she would make us breakfast for dinner and I got to sleep in bed with her. She was always there to take care of us when we were sick.  She was the true captain of our ship and kept all of us girls organized and gave us everything we needed. We always had nice clothes, great birthdays, and she made Christmas magical.

She could cook! It seems like every night we had a  huge homecooked meal and it was delicious.  She was Martha Stewart before Martha was a thing.

Something many of you who know our family already know is this very key detail about my mom: she loves the song Celebration by Kool & the Gang. Word on the street is that this was the song she and my aunt were dancing to on the tables….  At weddings when Celebration would come on and everyone else would quickly leave the dance floor, my mom would be out there shimmying around.  She didn’t care if it was just her dancing or who was watching. If her song came on, she was going to dance! Her love of music has remained constant throughout her disease. Up until recently she would still dance around with us during dance parties.

She was excellent with older people and volunteered with Meals on Wheels. I remember her really going above and beyond for a particular woman who was lonely. She was always going back by her house and dropping off slippers she bought her or a little treat. She always volunteered to clean our church, help make meals for funerals, or assist as needed.

Here’s something else about my mom – she is tough.  She was no wallflower.  She get’s that from her dad! She beat uterine cancer without blinking an eye. She has had early on-set Alzheimer’s for almost ten years and is still fighting.

It is very difficult to see her now, unable to care for herself, and sometimes it is all I can see when I look at her – this very different version of who she really is. I know it is hard for her friends and family  to see her this way too.  We have all had a rough time lately, so for today, I think I’ll stop talking about her disease and how she’s doing, and I’ll choose to think of her on the dance floor – just her and Kool and the Gang…