It seems as though every time I’m looking for one thing, I find something else.

This Sunday afternoon it was pages of family history, and stories, written by my Momma.

She was lonely after Daddy died and our Senior Citizen Center continued to be her respite until the late afternoons and evenings.

That’s when she turned to worthless me who’d worked too many hours at the newspaper back then.

It’s also when I suggested she write about growing up on a farm 3 1/2 miles from a small Missouri town.

Momma would’ve put Ancestry.com to shame back in the late 1990s with her family information.

In several of her writings she listed the dates of birth of all six of her brothers and sisters and all six of Daddy’s siblings.

Today I re-read her stories about her early teen years.

Below is one about when she went to school, worked at a cafe making pies and lived in town with her oldest brother and his wife so she could help care for their son and daughter.

Momma’s New Baby Story One night when Pansy was ready to have her new baby, Joe came in and said, “Adele you have to get up and help me. You make a fire in the kitchen stove and put on some pans of water to heat while I go get Doc Gullick.”

Boy I sure got wide awake.

I built a fire in the cook stove, put two pots of water on to get some warm water. I also got the new baby blanket, gown and diapers I’d helped Pansy make. And, oh yes, and the baby powder we bought and the baby’s bellyband.

I checked two or three times to make sure I had everything. I was ready, and about that time I heard the Old Doc tell Pansy to push, push, push!

I wondered what he wanted her to push and about that time the Old Doc said, “Fine. Here he is!”

Then I heard the baby cry, so I tested the water again.

Yes, lukewarm. Just right and here came Old Doc with a kicking and arm swinging little boy.

Now to test my skill to bathe him and dress him.

Suddenly my nursing experience was gone and I hardly knew what to do.

Why didn’t the Old Doc stay, and help me?

Then I heard him say, “Oh my God! There is another baby!”

I stepped up my speed of bathing and drying the little guy and got his clothes on him, wrapped him in a blanket and he quit kicking, and went to sleep.

Then I got another blanket, gown and diaper for the other little one and here came Old Doc with another kicking little boy.

“Adele you sure did a good job getting the belly band in place just right,” he said. “I may need to take you on all my new baby calls.”

I was proud of myself and guess I got a “Big Head” as my Dad would have said.

Then I got lots of experience caring for twin newborn babies.

About Her Story

Wow! When I was in my early teens I couldn’t wait to get home from school to watch American Bandstand and eat still-warm cookies that Momma had made.

Instead of becoming a nurse, she was the preschool elementary education director of the OKC First Baptist Church for 30 years.

I remember her staying late after church to teach a new mother how to bathe her newborn.

Then a few days after I turned 21, she helped as I tried to hold onto my wiggling baby boy to give him a bath in her kitchen sink.

My parents moved to Hennessey in 1987 and joined the Methodist Church.

That’s because Daddy saw a guy wearing overalls leaving that church and it reminded him of their hometown in Missouri.

Happy Mother’s Day on Sunday to all heavenly and earthly Mommas.