Happy Mother's Day 2013!

My mother, Hazel Neer Dran

Happy Mother's Day to all my readers and their mothers today! I was very fortunate to have a very loving and caring mother. She thought there was nothing my brother, Mickey, or I could not do. Her love for her family was the most important thing to her. I loved her with all my heart and I miss her terribly.

My mother and grandmother, Anna Leonard Neer

My grandmother, Anna Neer lived only eight miles from our home when I was a child. I loved to go to her house and would spend several nights with her. It was just her and me. She would bake cookies with me, take me out to help her in her garden, pick blueberries with me and a million other fun things. I loved to be with her at her house. Still to this day, I can picture every room in that house. Even her furniture and the smell. Oh Grandma, I loved you so much!

Bob and Lucille Lupole, My In-Laws

My mother-in-law, Lucille Toft Lupole is remembered on this day too. She loved her family and it showed in so many ways. Her love of music, inspired almost her whole family. My husband and his sister, Pat, and her family, are all musical thanks to her. Many holiday dinners were spent at her house with music being played after our dinners. In our local area, she was practically a celebrity, due to being known for her music. I will never forget her! Loved her very much!

Copyright © 2013 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2013  Kathleen G. Lupole

Happy Mother's Day Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Hazel and Michael Dran

In honor of Mother's Day today, I am putting up some photos of my wonderful mother, whom I miss every day of my life. She used to say to me that death is so final. So true! In my family many times Mother's Day would fall on my father's birthday too. So we'd have a double celebration. This year it is on the same day once again. It is my my father's 93 Birthday and he is still the most special man that I have ever known. It is the 9th Mother's Day without my mother.

Daddy and Mom

My parents were married for seven and a half years before they had children. My mother and father were pretty well set by the time the had my brother in 1950. They were in their second house which they paid cash for. We lived on State Road in Binghamton, NY, which is a rural area of Broome County. Later they moved to other homes and eventually to Florida and back. I used to wish they stayed put in one place. But I would have missed out on so many life experiences along the way!

Mickey and me

They loved each other so much and it was always apparent. I always remember them hugging and kissing in the kitchen after they got home from work and Mom was making supper. No matter what they always came first with each other. Even with us kids, they still came first with each other. My brother and I had a wonderful childhood, and we did so many things together as a family. I never saw them fight or argue in 60 years of marriage. I know some people will say that I just did not see it. But either of  my parents would have told you the same thing.

Our first house on State Road

Looking back, all I can say is that life was good. And I was very fortunate.

Happy Birthday to My Wonderful Daddy!

Happy Mother's Day to My Wonderful Mother In Heaven And Who I Miss Daily!

Copyright © 2012 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2012  Kathleen G. Lupole

Missing My Mother On Mother's Day

On Facebook this week, many people put their mother's photo up for their avatar to honor their mothers. This is the photo of my mother that I put up. It was always my favorite of her. She was the third child and third daughter of my grandparents. The three girls, Frances, Edna and Hazel were very close. My grandmother had another daughter, Emily, who died as an infant and was the fourth child. Then the first son, Floyd was born.

Frances, Edna, Hazel & Floyd Neer

My mother always told me about their life and I envied it. They didn't have a lot, but they were close. My grandmother made sure they had a roof over their heads, food to eat and clothes. She was a very hard worker and my grandfather was not an easy man to have for a husband. He would leave for periods of time. I have no memory of him at all. This is because I never met him, unless I saw him when I was a very little baby. My grandmother was separated from him. She would not divorce him due to her strict Catholic beliefs.

Floyd & Hazel Neer

She had two more children after that, George Jr. and Lorraine. The others though were older when they were born. My mother said a lady at the church had asked her when her mother was going to have her baby. She told her, "My mother is not having a baby." Then she was cleaning in their good parlor, and opened a trunk that was kept in there. It was full of new baby clothes! She never mentioned it to my grandmother. Not even a month after that, Aunt Lorraine was born.

Hazel Neer, My Mom

We were always close to her family and saw them often except for the years that we lived in Florida. Aunt Edna and her husband, Uncle Eddie, and their family lived in North Tonawanda, near Buffalo. So we didn't see them very much. Aunt Frances worked her whole life so we didn't see her and her family very often either.

Hazel & Edna Neer, 1941

Mom and I used to go visit her brother, Uncle Floyd, his wife, Aunt Gerry and their family on Sundays often. We would bring all the kids candy because my father had a gas station and sold candy. So we had a good supply! I loved to go to their house because they had a big family and there was always a lot to do there. I especially liked to see Prancer, my cousin, Judy's horse. Aunt Gerry was like a sister to my mother. She still to this day, checks on my father as they don't live very far apart.

Michael Dran & Hazel Neer, 1941

I was luckier than some people to have my mother and father for my parents. They were wonderful to my brother, Mickey and I. We did a lot of things as a family that are some of my favorite memories. They got married in 1942, while my father was in the Army and stationed in Orlando, FL. That was the time my father loved best. He talks about it all the time.

Hazel Neer Dran, 1942

 

 

Mom passed away in 2002 and we still miss her so much. She was the glue that kept our family together. We have lost that closeness due to her being gone, and us all having drifted from that family center. I think that I miss the most, that special relationship, that exists between a mother and a daughter. It is like no other. If you still have your mother, don't spend all your time working and doing other things, when you can spend some extra time with her and your father. I did that myself. I was too busy at times and now regret it. The time we have with them is too short.

Wishing all mothers a very happy day today. If you aren't a mother for whatever reason, I hope you have a very happy day too. I know it can be difficult when everyone is celebrating a day that you seem to be not a part of. You don't have to give birth or have a mother that is wonderful, to celebrate. Just celebrate that all those mothers before us gave birth to some pretty awesome people in the past and present. Have a happy Sunday!

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole
All Photographs Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole

Mother's Day Tribute To A Wonderful Mother

My mother in Orlando, FL in 1942

Today is Mother's Day and I am lucky to have a loving grown son who treats me as if every day is Mother's Day. It is nice to know I am appreciated and must have done something right all those years ago in raising him. He did not have an easy time of it with his father and my first husband. But we got through it and still are  very close.

My Mom loved having grandchildren! She just had so much fun with my son when he was born. She did all kind of things with him and even taught him how to swim. I didn't realize when I had my son at a young age my Mother would love my child so much. She only had two children of her own due to health issues. She almost died having me but survived to be a very loving and caring Mother.

My Mother, Hazel Dorothy Neer Dran (1923-2002) and my son, Michael Jeffrey Dier

I lost my Mother in November 2002 and I miss her every day. Things happen in my life and I will wish I could talk to her and tell her about it. The funny thing I remember is her saying to me, "death is so final", because she wanted to tell her Mother or her sister something and could not. Now I feel the same way. She called me every day without fail. Seven o'clock comes and I look at that phone and wish it would ring with her on the other end. Mom was handicapped having suffered with Cushing's Syndrome since 1977. It caused her bones to disintegrate. She had to have her adrenal gland removed and take cortisone for the rest of her life. Eventually she ended up bedridden but at home. My father took good care of her. He rigged up a car horn that she could toot for him if he was outside working in the garden or in the garage. So that solved the problem of him working outside when she might need him inside.

My family, me, Mom, Daddy and my brother, Mickey

I think about her and all that we shared:

She loved to sew and she made all my clothes when I was a teenager. I wanted to be Cher and she made all kinds of bell bottom outfits and custom dresses for me.

She taught me how to drive.

She and I would go shopping at Belair Plaza in Daytona Beach and then would have pizza at Tony's pizza and she would let me play the juke box on the table.

She took me to see Gone With The Wind for the first time at Belair Plaza and it still is one of my favorites.

Shopping, even when she was on crutches, she drove to my home every week and we went to lunch and shopping.

I took her to see the Broadway show, Forty-Second Street, starring Lisa Brown who was one of her favorite actresses from The Guiding Light and As The World Turns.

I took her to see the Broadway show, Cats.

In later years when she was bedridden, we would watch the cooking shows and some of the soaps on tv together.

She loved to crochet and never used patterns. She crocheted over 50 baby sweaters for me to sell in her way to help me out.

She was an artist and shared her talent with her two grandsons.

Mom loved to fish with my father. During our years of living in Crescent City and Flagler Beach, FL we would pack a picnic and go fishing for the day. Beautiful memories for us!

When we lived in Crescent City, FL we used to swim at a beautiful lake, Lake Stella. She would be out in the deep water swimming back and forth without stopping the whole time. Many of the other parents would sit on the dock or on the white sand, but not my parents! They loved the water.

Mom with my brother, Mickey and me in Lake Stella in Cresecent City, FL


Copyright © 2010 Kathleen G. Lupole