In memory of my Mother,

Here is the story behind the poem :

(June 9th 1999)

When my sisters and I were little we came up with the bright idea that our Mother just had to have the very first dandelion of each year. Don't ask me how this got started because I don't remember. Maybe it was because after WWII in England everyone was looking for ways to brighten up their life and my mother liked flowers. Whether or not dandelions qualify as flowers didn't matter to us - we just thought they were pretty and bright coloured. The first warm days of Spring would find us searching through every patch of grass to see who would be the first to find a dandelion. When one of us got got lucky we would grab our treasure and, pull it up out of the ground, then run home yelling to all that we got the first dandelion. It was dutifully put in a jar of water where it stayed until it shrivelled up and then it was reluctantly thrown out.

Even after I came to the States I continued this habit and would dry and press one of these lowly flowers to send back home. My sisters probably considered this cheating because it is much hotter here in the Southern USA than it is in England, and Spring comes much earlier, so I usually found one first :)

In 1994 we were told that our Mother didn't have much longer to live. She had battled cancer twice and won but then she suffered a slight stroke and now had fluid in her lungs. I went home at Christmas to see her and promised that I would be back for her 88th birthday in June. Spring 1995 was a sad time of year because when I saw the first dandelion I knew it would be the last one I would pick for her. I picked the biggest and brightest dandelion I could find and pressed it between wax paper then tried to think of something to write to send with the flower to my sister. The words to this poem just popped right into my head and I wrote them down. It was almost as if someone else was writing it for me. I sent the flower and the poem home and my sister said she read it to our Mother and actually got a smile out of her.

I was fortunate enough to be able to go back home in June and spend three weeks with my family. My Mother's birthday was June 9th and we gave her a quiet family party. She was more alert than she had been for days and thoroughly enjoyed herself. That night she told my sister, Irene, that she was glad she had managed to make it until June. She then added that she was very tired and was ready to go now. My sisters swear that she hung on until then because I had promised to come home to be with her on her birthday.

My Mother passed away peacefully in November, 1995. I still miss her so much. Today would have been her 92nd birthday. I called my sister and we shared some memories together. I decided to do this dedication for my contribution to WOW's online quilt.

So, after weeks of trying to find the "perfect" square here is my humble contribution to this ambitious project. My square is not perfect by any means but, like all these other wonderful squares from all these wonderful ladies of WOW, it comes from the heart.

Check out our WOW
(Women of Worldnet)
online quilt It is truly awesome :)

WOW Quilt

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(For no music click button with square on it)
midi playing is Danny Boy, my Mother's favourite,
I found it at the Midi Machine