Memorial Weekend 2011

For as long as I can remember our family has visited the cemeteries just before Memorial Day.  We make sure the grass is mown and we put new flowers in the vases.  This year as usual we put flowers on the graves of seven of the most influential people in my life.

 My Mom and Dad...  It takes years of being without them to really realize the influence they had on you.  Mom was the homemaker...Dad told her when they were married "You keep the house and I'll provide for you and the family".   I do not remember a time getting off the school bus that Mom was not home.  She cooked simple hearty meals, sewed and patched our clothes, worked in the PTA, cleaned the church, was the church secretary, tended our scrapes, bruises and pride and showed us Christ through her life...

My Dad was the hardest working man I ever knew...he was a carpenter, real estate broker, auction clerk, used-furniture store owner, repaired tractors and farm equipment...he was a jack-of-all-trades and master of all of them!  He taught me how to swim, fish, hunt, ride a bike, throw a ball, hit a ball, How to use a shovel-pick-post hole diggers-spud bar-hammer-saw-wrenches-welder-cutting torch......At times I resented having to work when other kids were on the ball teams or out on the town but Dad was wise and kept us busy to keep us out of trouble!  He was a quiet man that never raised his voice but could keep us in line with just a look!  I never remember him telling me he loved me but I never have doubted it because of the time he spent with me.....

 Elmer and Alma Riggs to everyone else...Momo and Popo to me!  Popo gave me many stories to tell of working with him on construction projects and hunting expeditions...He was one of the most impulse men I have ever known!!  Momo was never "rattled" by anything.  Always calm, cool and collected!  She was my spiritual rock in a stormy sea when I was a young Christian...

 My Aunt Mary...her mind was affected by a high fever when she was around two years old.  Through her I came to realize that every human life is special and God makes no mistakes. 

I didn't get to know my Grandpa Fox very well since I was only six when he passed but I do have my memories...riding in his old car, watching him roll his prince albert cigarettes, him singing "Old Jim Dog" to me, the stories he would tell with my Dad and Uncles...
Grandma Fox...different story!!!...The highlight of her day was to scare the bejeebers out of somebody!..Oh the stories I could tell...!!! I wish someone could fry chicken like she could...I would pay big money for it!  Her steady Christian life made me know that in all of life's adversities, we can still have a fun and laugh!