Creative Writing Challenge #26 - My Mother

My mother is an iron will and a strong determination.  She is a cloud of White Shoulders perfume once tinted with Aqua Net.  She is Ranger's baseball and every tear-jerker ever broadcast on the Hallmark channel.  She is a huge pot of red beans and a plate of sweet cornbread with little green onions on the side.  She is a vegetable garden stretched across the entire length of the back yard with a zinnia border and hollyhocks in the corner.  She is clothes drying on the line.

My mother is 85 years of life in a difficult world she hasn't always understood but always met with a hot cup of good coffee.  She is every green plant imaginable in pots of all sizes sitting on the porches and in the kitchen and in all the windows.  She is still "Snooks" even though Jack hasn't called her that in years.  She is a heart-shaped face with a widow's peak she gave to me.  She is full, feminine hands with long, lovely nails and deep brown eyes that sparkle when she's up to something.

My mother is a gentle soul with a strong "whuppin" arm and a nose sometimes easily put out of joint.  She is a survivor of childbirth and child rearing and children.  She is long days alone and a house full of noise and few words.  She is a devastating stroke that became a molehill once the mountain was climbed.  She is someone to listen to.  She is funny and good humored.  She is forgetful and sometimes confused.  She is shocking and frank.  She is the product of alcoholism and verbal abuse.  She is an only daughter with three girls of her own.  She is usually still in bed at noon although she never let me do that!!

My mother is someone I love.