Blog
The importance of a smile
By Carol / May 11, 2012 /
Mother’s Day is Sunday. How could you miss it with all the advertising these past weeks?
In honor of my mother and moms everywhere, I’ve joined with a group of indie authors to celebrate all mothers. Our little group will be blogging for the next five days about our moms and assorted mom topics.
In addition, we’re offering an ebook from each of us for 99¢ at the usual online booksellers. Our genres run the gamut from memoir to adventure to thriller. This promotion–and the special price–are good from May 11-May 15. The list of authors, books, and links to points of sale are listed below.
If you’d like a give a gift to your mom or grandmother or aunt or sister or neighbor or dad or someone else this Mother’s Day, you might find one – or all – of these books the perfect gift. How can you miss when you can load up their e-reader for $5?
My mom - Ruby Denter
To get the blog ball rolling, I’d like to introduce you to my mother – Ruby Belle (Jensen) Denter. She lived life fully for 91 years. Raised in town, Mom found herself tied to country life.
She taught in a one-room country school for several years. When she married a farmer, she quit teaching (of course, that’s what you did in 1942) and committed herself to being, in her words, “the best farm wife I could be.” She raised three daughters, milked cows morning and night, made garden and canned or froze most of the food we ate, cooked three meals a day, and sewed most of our clothes.
This picture was taken the day before she died in August 2007, and it shows just what a full life she lived. She was canning tomatoes that morning. She was always fond of flowers and usually had a bouquet of some sort on the kitchen table. Because she had macular degeneration, I’d brought her this big bouquet of black-eyed susans. She liked them in particular because yellow was a color she could still see well.
Mostly, notice her smile. She loved to have company come visit and she always made them welcome with a smile and something to eat. As her eye sight failed, she believed her smile was more important than ever. Though she could see well enough to know that someone was approaching, she couldn’t see well enough to know who it was. She said, “I smile so they’ll know I’m happy to see them whoever they are.”
That’s having a good attitude, don’t you think?
Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!
You’re mom sounded like an amazing woman! Thanks for sharing, Carol!
She was amazing, Chantel. She could get more done before breakfast than I can pull off in an entire day!
Ahh… Carol, what a wonderful tribute. What a precious picture and memory. She had the right priorities in being the best farm wife and mother she could be. Thanks for sharing and I cannot wait to read your book.
Mom was ‘all in,’ as they say these days, on whatever she did. So many good memories.
Beautiful tribute post to your mom! My mom cooked, crafted and worked hard too. Our moms certainly were good examples and taught us a lot. Like yours, my mom is also gone. Thanks for sharing!
I’m sorry we have to spend this mother’s day with out our moms, Teri. We have good memories, and I hold on to those. And the lessons I learned from her come in handy every day!