In Honor of My Mother, Rubye Bailey
1919 to 1989
My mother was an amazing person. Strong, smart, sensible. She was a dynamic force to be reckoned
with. Her love and guidance gave me
stability during the years she was alive and her memory has helped me through the years she has been gone.
I found this poem online and I think it says what I feel
perfectly.
If Roses Grow in Heaven
If roses grow in heaven
Lord, please pick a bunch for me.
Place them in my Mother's arms
and tell her they're from me.
Tell her that I love her and miss her,
and when she turns to smile,
place a kiss upon her cheek
and hold her for awhile.
Because remembering her is easy
I do it every day,
but there's an ache within my heart
that will never go away.
Lord, please pick a bunch for me.
Place them in my Mother's arms
and tell her they're from me.
Tell her that I love her and miss her,
and when she turns to smile,
place a kiss upon her cheek
and hold her for awhile.
Because remembering her is easy
I do it every day,
but there's an ache within my heart
that will never go away.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Also, I'd like to thank my Aunt June for her love and guidance after my mother passed away. She is more like a mother to me than an aunt.
It just happened that I got the results of my genetic phenotyping from National Geographic on Mother's Day. It's special because this DNA test traces your inheritance through your maternal side. Mitochondrial DNA is passed down from mother to daughter generation after generation. You and I belong to Haplogroup K. It traces back to a ancestral mother who migrated from Africa to western Asia and then to Europe after the glaciers receded. I don't know if you've heard of the frozen mummy they found who is called "Otzi The Iceman", but he is Haplogroup K too. We are related to him! There's a lot more info on Haplogroup K at Wikipedia and many other sites. There's also a more detailed test that wasn't available at the time I ordered my test kit. It gives results like "K1a2c" that is more specific. I plan to do that one later in the year.
ReplyDeleteVery kewl, no?
Lisa, you look so much like Mom in that photograph. She looks so beautiful and dreamy, I wonder what she was thinking of when the shutter snapped.
ReplyDeleteAnd Aunt June could be our sister Glenda's clone.
Grandma Lillian sure had some beautiful children.