Shirley Anne’s Heart

Posted By drsao on June 8, 2010

My Mother, Marjorie Ruth Lyle Albertson,  died May 27.  She would have been 89 July 30.    I want to thank everyone for the wonderful cards and expressions of support.  I think that no matter what your age it is hard to lose your mother.  I still don’t feel like myself.

The motivation for starting my blog was for entertainment for my parents – my mother loved the computer and e-mail.  As a tribute I would like to include her eulogy here – written and given by my brother, Jim.    Jim is the second from the left *sitting next to me.)  This is our last family picture taken January 2010

 

Eulogy of Marjorie Ruth Albertson

Let me tell you about our Mom, who was within 2 months of being 89 years of age. 

She distinguished herself as a wife, mother, aunt, grandmother, and great grandma or GG MA as she was called by many of the great grandchildren. 

 

As a Wife

Mom and Dad just celebrated their 67^th wedding anniversary.  She never wanted to be apart from dad even for a day. 

Once when dad took her to Wichita to help Shirley with a new baby, dad needed to immediately return to KC.  No sooner had he walked into his KC home, mom was calling him to return to Wichita to pick her up.  She didn’t want to be away from him.  Of course Dad made the drive back.

Mom was a perfect complement to Dad.  While Dad was quiet,. . . . . . . Mom was not. 

She was a talker, communicator, and before the internet was invented, it was called “TeleMarj” because we knew to communicate to Mom meant communicating to the world.

While Mom was helping Shirley plan her wedding, Mom received a phone call.  Mom answered the phone and began telling the person for 45 minutes all about the wedding plans. 

Once she hung up and returned to Shirley, Shirley was curious about who was the recipient of this long conversation,  . . . . . Shirley asked. . . . .  Mom said . . .  I don’t know, it was a wrong number.

 

Dad was rational and practical, . . . . Mom sometimes not. 

Mom was outside one day at 106 (our family home of 45 years) when she came screaming for JB.  “JB”  she exclaimed, there is an elephant walking up North Main Street. 

North Main was about a block away and up the hill from our home.

Of course the practical and rational Dad said “Now Marjorie. .  .   .  there can’t be an elephant walking up North Main Street”. 

“But JB, there is, you must come outside right now to see it”, 

“Nah” says JB, . . . .

”JB, you won’t believe me unless you see the elephant, . . . come now”…   

Mom was insistent and Dad reluctantly went up the street with Mom to confirm the elephant’s existence. 

When Dad arrived on North Main Street, sure enough he saw the gray elephant.  It had 6 wheels, a driver, and a huge lumpy back that was made of canvas with an emblem of “United Moving Van”. 

Mom was still convinced there was an elephant and this moving van wasn’t what she saw. 

As a Mother, Aunt, Grandmother, and Great Grandmother (called GG MARJ), she can be described as: 

Generous and Caring –  Mom made sure the needs of others were met before her own.  We were all spoiled rotten.  Her life was her husband’s and kids’. 

 

Her Grandson Joey, which she called “Peter Pan” (since she wished he would never grow up), . . . once gave her a Robin Beanie Baby for her collection. 

Of course Mom asked Joey if he would like a beanie baby someday, and Joey responded that he would like one exactly like the Robin. 

Well, on Joey’s next birthday he received the very same beanie baby.  Mom wanted Joey to have her’s, . . not just another one. 

 

Mom and Dad were the first in the family to have HBO. 

Once Mom knew that we couldn’t afford such a luxury, Mom proceeded to tape movies and special shows and distributed these tapes to all of us. 

Mom invented Block Buster for our family. 

Our Son Andrew had a friend whose father was a FBI agent.  I cautioned Andrew not to play these tapes when his friend visited or Grandma might go to jail. 

 

Mom had special traits that she generously shared. 

Mom was a seamstress and made a lot of clothes for us. 

We would often serve as her manikin as she tailored the clothes.  We became human pin cushions and I can still feel those accidental pricks with straight pins. 

Mom once made matching shirts and blouses for all of us to wear.  Fortunately, we wore our matching outfits on vacation trips for only strangers to see. 

Mom shared this skill by instructing sewing classes at the YMCA and mentoring her daughter and her sons. 

Yes the sons can all darn socks and sew back on buttons.

Shirley reached a much higher level by being  proficient in quilt making.

 

Her generosity reached an even higher level with her grandchildren.  They too were spoiled rotten by her. 

Mom would always know their wants and wishes and then made sure dreams would come true. 

The hours were infinite that Mom and Dad must have spent searching and standing in line for Cabbage Patch Dolls and Pound Puppies. 

It was always a treat for the grandkids to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa.  Mom made sure that their time was spectacular. 

Andrew remembers that he always cherished waking up in the morning at Grandma’s house and having Grandma find his favorite cartoon and then giving him all the pancakes he wanted. 

I sometimes wondered why Amanda always enjoyed being sick during the workweek.  These were the times when Grandma would take her into her house and pamper her until Amanda was cured after a prolonged rehabilitation of impeccable room service. 

 

Her caring went beyond the immediate family.  Here is a passage from her niece Lindy that was sent this week. 

“Aunt Marjorie was such a special gift to our world.  I remember visiting when very young, and she always made everything fun, and an adventure.  She was one of a kind, such a treasure”.      

 

Nurturing – We grew up in a Christian home. 

Mom and Dad were chartered members of North Cross United Methodist Church where we learned about having God and Jesus in our lives.  Mom was a Sunday school teacher and brought these teachings into the home by hosting bible studies. 

Mom always had time to help us with our various interests. 

Mom was a den mother for the sons, and brownie leader for Shirley.

Mom had quite a chore to nurture 3 sons. 

Especially one son in particular who enjoyed shooting sharp arrows at his older brother, leaping out of 2 story windows, and torturing his innocent young brother. 

Mom knew how to discipline, but when the days got too crazy, time out wasn’t enough, so she used the ultimate weapon.  “Dad will be home soon to take care of you if you don’t behave”.

 

Mom would use stories to stimulate the upcoming day’s event for her grandchildren. 

I believe these were call “Oatmeal Stories” that were created for her first grandchildren Rob and Christi. 

Apparently the stories were dubbed “Oatmeal Stories”  because instead a beginning, “once upon a time”, they would start with the main character, Rob or Christi.

Rob or Christi would be eating oatmeal for breakfast and then Mom would describe what these fictitious characters had experienced in life’s little adventure that day.  Christi said that these stories always came true.    

 

As we grew older and started to leave the house on our own, Mom would always make sure we had a sense of the consequences we could create.

Her parting words were “the life you save belongs to me”. 

Mom found a way to show us how to use the talents that God gave us.  She quoted the Golden Rule a lot and promoted TLC. 

 

Great Cook – Mom always made a meal to bring the family together.

The meal was a celebration and Mom definitely knew how to celebrate.

Mom wanted each person to be totally satisfied with the menu so she planned the meal around our favorites. 

Now that was an enormous task considering the number of family members and their various tastes.  It was not unusual to have multiple main entrees. 

Here are some of our famous items Mom prepared:

Curried Chicken on Rice

Brisket

BBQ Chicken

Corn Bread and Beans

Broccoli Cheese Casserole

Sticky Buns piled high

Snow Top Cookies

Zucchini Chocolate Cake

AND Bavarian Cream – She had a special red bowl that she used to serve the Bavarian Cream.  When the red bowl came out of the kitchen cabinets, we knew a feast was in the making. 

Granddaughter Amanda was given this bowl subject to the condition that she would prepare Bavarian Cream for family gatherings.  Mom…..

Amanda remembers this promise but she’s been a little busy making babies, but I’m sure she will honor your wishes in the foreseeable future.  

 

Did I forget any favorites??????

 

She taught all of us some dish to cook.  Amanda remembers that her Grandma discovered that her small hands were perfect for fluting pie crust.  She was the fluting expert whenever Grandma made pies.  Amanda since has become quite the dessert Chef. 

 

After 50 years of cooking for the family, she told Dad it was time for him to take over. 

Mom wrote out all her recipes using a computer and prepared a notebook for Dad to follow. 

This Cookbook was produced and given to all of us.  Dad turned out to be a pretty good cook. 

 

 

Compassionate – She shared and felt the feelings of others. 

When we were hurting or troubled, Mom felt the same and always searched for a solution to protect us. 

I have to confess there were a few times I would not tell her of my personal issues for fear that she would hurt more than me. 

When we were successful Mom wanted to celebrate…..and yes many times by making us our favorite meal. 

 

 

Planner – Mom was a planner.  Not only for the day, but years in advance. 

For instance as we grew up and started our own families and many of us moved away from KC, she always planned when we would all be together for Christmas. 

She knew that we must spend time with our in-laws and she kept track. 

She expected her fair share of family time and she was quick to remind us that a particular Christmas was Her turn. 

Many times she was successful in getting all of her 4 kids and their family together. 

Mom kept us together despite the geographical distances between our families. 

Networking – Mom invented the word networking. 

Once AOL was invented, Mom immediately took this tool to bind the family in our day to day lives. 

Mom became the family calendar. 

By the use of her internet skills, Mom kept all us celebrating each other’s birthdays and anniversaries by her broadcasts emails.

We relied on Mom to remind us.  By the way family, you might jot down that my birthday is April 18^th. 

 

Mom knew each of our schedules and discovered . . .  flight tracker. 

Every trip we took, we knew that Mom was watching that little plane going across the map and her announcing to everyone that we had arrived on time.   

 

Mom was a pen pal to many.  A day didn’t go by that we didn’t have a message from her.  Mom was able to create a close communicating family despite our physical separation. 

 

Mom recently discovered I had a Blackberry and I was getting her emails no matter where I was during the day.  I had responded within seconds on a message and Mom was thrilled and wanted to know all about this new device.  I expect that Mom would have wanted a Blackberry as a way to keep her family in her pocket. Texting would have been a new way for her to communicate. 

 

I know that when the days pass, all of us will feel her loss especially when we open up our emails and not see “GGMARJ”   and her message. 

 

We love you Mom for being there for us and keeping us together.  We know we will all be united someday with you. 

Categories: Life Comments, Mother's Eulogy, SAO's Family
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