Women Who Rock..........

This past weekend was the General Relief Society Meeting.  This is an awesome meeting where the women of the LDS church are taught, inspired and challenged by the general RS presidency and a member of the first presidency.  This meeting spoke of the "great heritage" Relief Society gives women.  I am grateful for the dynamic women in my life- this week, my blogs are dedicated to these awesome women.....women who rock....

Today the woman who rocks is my mom.  She has been gone for 30 years.  She died on my 17th birthday ruining my trip to Elitches with friends and leaving a hole in my heart that will never be replaced. 

She was 5'1" and as wide and she was tall.  I was 5'9" in 7th grade and she could kick my butt with her church shoes on.  You did not mess with Dot.  Her German upbringing made her tough as nails.   She also had the biggest heart in the world.  

Dot died of Cancer.  She fought the battle for years, and it finally won.  But along the way she taught me lessons I tried to forget- but as I get older, these memories become sharper.    

Dot made the best pound cake in Colorado.....  Perhaps this side of the Mississippi....Perhaps in the United States.  She would make this pound cake when someone had a baby, someone had surgery, someone died, or  someone needed cheering up. I believe if she would have felt better she would have baked a few pound cakes for her own funeral.  Often I would come home from school to the smell of pound cake in the kitchen and be thrilled only to find out that they were all going out to "other people who need them."  I tried to explain that I "needed one" too..but often that was met with a little chuckle as she loaded them into our green station wagon to deliver them.  

My mother crocheted, knitted and quilted.  These also wound up in the hands of other people, but sometimes I was the recipient.   I recall an orange, brown and white crocheted vest that I sported with a white button up shirt for one of my school pictures... I thought I looked pretty cool- it was definably very 70's.  She tried to teach me these skills... to which I cried, whined, pouted and screwed things up enough that she sent me outside to jump on the tramp and ride my bike at high rates of speed down big hills with no bike helmet.  

 Mom, if you are listening right now, I would really like to learn how do to that stuff.  

My mom taught me service.  She made dinner for people who were sick when she got home from Chemo.  

My mom taught me respect.  She sewed the curtains at the Table Mesa Chapel because kids swung on them and tore them. You could often find her sitting on the stage with a needle and thread, mending the curtains.  

Mom, I promise, I never swung on the curtains. ( well, if I did, I am pretty sure they didn't rip while I was doing it!) 

My mom knew the Savior.  She would belt out the song, "I know that my Redeemer lives" and would sing off key from a previous throat surgery... I was so embarrassed.  I would ask her to sing more quietly.  She would cry during the song too... Shesh, Mom...it is just a song.


Mom, I would love to sit next to you and sing that song. Sing as loud as you want....Cry all you want.  That song makes me cry too now...Because I get it.  

I know when you left I was 17, selfish and pretty stupid.  You may not even recognize me.... But you molded me into who I am today.  


Thank you......

I love you.....