It seems surreal that my Mother is not here. She passed recently having lived 92 years. In the last few years we could see her memory fading and our Mom quietly disappearing. I try to remember the times we shared, whether we were together in the kitchen preparing a meal or tending to the garden that she raised every summer. She was a frugal woman who did not believe in wasting anything. She raised vegetables and canned any extra that we would enjoy throughout the rest of the year. And one of my fondest memories was taking our vegetables, fresh corn, watermelon and cantaloupe to the farmers market where she displayed some of her finest produce to sell. She was an excellent dressmaker, she sewed most of my clothes growing up. And she tried to teach me the art of sewing although it really wasn’t my calling. She made quilts throughout the years, making each grandchild a quilt of their own. The girls were given vintage sunbonnet girl quilts while the boys received vintage fisher overall boy quilts. She loved watching her hummingbirds that would come in numbers in the Spring and flock to the hummingbird feeders that were put out on the porch with sugar water each year.
When I was young my Dad raised cotton on the farm. He worked so hard and Mom always had a big meal on the table when they came in at noontime. In those days almost everything was fried and it tasted so good. She made the best fried chicken and chicken fried steak. Always served with mashed potatoes, cream gravy and coleslaw. But in the summer we had fresh vegetables. We would snap green beans or shell peas in the evenings, gather tomatoes, okra, radishes, onions, beets, cucumbers, asparagus, zucchini and yellow squash, cabbage, turnips, mustard and turnip greens, and sometimes green chiles. Sometimes I wonder how she did it all! My parents worked hard, showed us how to live on a budget and within our means but most of all showed us love. I hope they are together now in peace.
Love Lives On
Those we love remain with us
for love itself lives on,
and cherished memories never fade
because a loved one’s gone.
Those we love can never be
more than a thought apart,
far as long as there is memory,
they’ll live on in the heart.
This is one of my favorite pictures of my Mom as a teenager.
A few years back I came across these old pictures of Mom with the most beautiful dresses. She said she made them all. These are from the early 40’s.
Mama and Daddy on their wedding day . . . March 29, 1944
Mom, Carl and Kat
Love you Mama!
An Inspired Cook 
8 thoughts on “Memories of my Mother”
mjskit
I’m so sorry to read about your mother’s passing. She sounds like an absolutely wonderful woman who was greatly loved and cherished by her daughter and family. Your mother remains me a lot of my own mother with the gardening, canning, sewing and quilting. Isn’t it great that we were able to acquire some of those skills and pass them on to others.
A wonderful post and great tribune to a lovely lady.
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NativeNM
Thank you for the sweet comments MJ. Yes, it’s never easy losing your Mother. I will always treasure the memories shared with my Mom in the kitchen or tending her garden or sewing. She instilled in me a love of cooking and making memories around the kitchen table with family and friends. I’m sure you have similar memories with your Mother as well.
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Paula
I Love the sweet, beautiful tribute to your mom and seeing the pictures of her…what a beautiful lady. Treasured memories! She sure raised a wonderful, beautiful daughter. I just know your momma and daddy are smiling proudly down on you and your family…what special guardian angels you have my sweet friend. Thank you for sharing your memories!
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NativeNM
It means a lot to read your sweet words about Mom. We both know what it’s like to have older Mothers, they came from a different generation but we are blessed to have had them, they taught us so much!
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Paul Wolf
I came here looking for a recipe for green chile potato salad and enjoyed browsing through your other recipes. Your photos and descriptions of various NM sites brought back memories of my younger days growing up in NM in the 50s. Then I read Memories of my Mother….your writeup would make a very good description of my own mom. She too sewed clothes for us, canned vegetables and enjoyed quilting – a unique one for each of us 5 kids. Frugal would fit her too! She passed away some years ago at 91.
Our family lived on an acre of ground across the river in the SW valley. Starting with a vacant field my parents built an adobe house and barn, owned 2 cows and were raising chickens, rabbits, turkeys and sometimes a pig – all for family consumption. Grandpa lived with us and tended a large vegetable garden. We had a few fruit trees and an alfalfa field to feed the cows. My dad called it El Rancho Lobo (our family name is Wolf).
Thanks for the potato salad recipe and for triggering all these memories!
NM Native in NV
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NativeNM
Thanks so much for taking the time to write about your own family memories. Your memories sound a lot like my childhood and coming of age. I think those of us who grew up in that era learned so much from our frugal families. At the time I wrote about my mom, we were living in Kansas. The next year (2018) we moved back to NM and I found that there’s no place I’d rather be. I am home! Do you ever think of coming back?
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Paul Wolf
Our NM roots were deep – back to the late 1800s when my grandpa arrived in Albuquerque – but we were uprooted in ’58 when my dad was transferred to Denver followed by another transfer to Billings, MT 10 years later. As a result, each of us 5 kids ended up living in different states as adults. We’ve all been back to NM a few times over the years, but moving back has been more fantasy than reality – except for our older brother who never left. He was working full time on our cousin’s ranch west of town when the first move happened and he later settled in Farmington.
About the ranch, it was located in a remote area about halfway between the small towns of Laguna to the north and Magdalena to the south. 100,000 acres of cactus, lava rock, rattlesnakes, prairie dogs, kangaroo rats and a band of wild horses. Our family visited during their annual branding and shipping events and us kids became working cowboys for a few days. The secondary ranch HQ was known as the Pie Place. I wanted to mention this because of your post about Pie Town – not far away but no connection between the two names.
Thanks for listening. My head is kind of exploding with NM memories!
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NativeNM
Thanks for sharing your family’s history, Paul. It’s a great story that has so much NM history that I find fascinating. I’m glad that my story could trigger memories for you as well.
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