SHE LEFT US LAUGHING

Many years ago there lived on this earth a lady of substance. She was a queen of mothers and a queen in her husband’s eyes. She was his other half, the fun half.  She could walk with a smile and a look in her eyes that said welcome and sit down for a while. If you knew something was not going well for her, it was a lucky, wild guess on your part.

She had grandchildren and you knew about it, because it was one of the things she talked about, along with Mrs. Flannery, Mrs. O’Reilly, Mrs. O’Rourke and even a Sullivan lady or two. She had more friends than the Rockefellers had money, and she used her treasure better.

Her childhood was filled with tales about her father, a Pontiac which she pronounced: PONT –tiack, and she was always late. When she talked, it started out about ‘A’, drifted to ‘Z’ and miraculously went back to ‘A’!

Never once did I ever hear an unkind word from her, Helen supported everything her children did in life, and withheld judgment.

I know she was no saint, she often told her Jim to go $#!t in his hat for any reason she deemed it fit. She once had a policeman chase her into her driveway for an unaware of moving violation; greeting the poor cop like he was a long lost son, went to visit her daughter while in her pajamas at Seton Hall High School because she left the house key locked inside her home, and always chatted up the checkout line where she worked at A&P, causing I’m sure long lines as she chatted with everyone.

Today her children all have a little of her in them. TLW (The Little Woman) can tell me to $#!t in MY hat, can often take a listener into outer-space and back to earth once more too.

Helen was not a mother-in-law as she was a friend, a place to warm your heart, a soul that made yours a little better. Today is her birthday, she would have been 98, and if she lived she would tell you something, something to make you laugh, make you feel good, and make you realize how easy life can be.

Happy birthday, Mom.