Remembering Mama Billa

This morning my beloved grandma, Mama Billa as we all called her, passed away in her sleep. She had been in the hospital for a week now and I started mourning her loss then. We all knew it was inevitable, and there was nothing to be done, therefore the goal was to make her parting as painless as possible. Although it really doesn't make it less sad, the fact that she died peacefully in her sleep is of some comfort to me and those who loved her.

My grandma was no wallflower. Married at 14, she was the mother of 15 children. She was the matriarch of her family. Growing up I can remember her at the head of the table leading the rosary. I remember her sitting in a chair braiding tobacco while all the children deveined it. My grandfather was a farmer, and all his children worked the farm until they left the house. None of that, "I'm not doing that!" If you lived there, you worked... you sat at the table, you had a bowl of beans to shell, you sat on the porch, there were peanuts to shell... busy hands are happy hands... work,work,work. Funny the things that one remembers. When my grandfather died many, many years ago, she kept her family in check. She was a small little woman, under five feet tall, and when she spoke we stopped and listened. She was sweet, caring and soooooo loved by all. She lived in her home, assisted by her daughters until last week, she was 92 years young.

I will always love her, and miss her.