Truest Beauty

 "Mamaw"

Mary Baker

1925-2013

The truest beauty is found not

on the glossy pages of a magazine,

nor can it be measured in stylish outfits or handbags. 

 

For me, the truest beauty in my

life lived in a simple house in Kentucky. 

 

It was 87 year old Mamaw who had some hard times, but still woke up each morning and kept right on living. 

 

A woman of strength who lost a husband and two sons, yet still found the heart space to love the rest of us so well.  22 grandkids, 25 great grandkids and 2 great, greats. 

 

Beauty in the love shown us through kettles of food on her stove and plates of comfort at her table.   

 

The way everyone somehow got a Christmas gift every year. 

 

Well salted fried potatoes, hot chicken and dumplings, and crockpots of pinto beans.

 

It was watching her whip up homemade -no recipe needed- biscuits even when she could hardly see. 

 

It was the hearing of old stories retold again and again. 

 

Shelves of nicknack's and walls of family photos. 

 

It was grown sons bringing their mom sausage biscuits every morning, plowing her garden, and making sure she had someone to sit with each evening. 

 

It was a childhood of long days of playing with cousins and snapping bucketfuls of green beans on her front porch. 

 

The way she scrubbed my head raw with a washcloth when she bathed us. 

 

It was waking up as an adult from a night's sleep in her back bedroom, and walking out to find her rocking in her chair and thumbing a coffee cup. 

 

A woman in her younger days who could grab a chicken by its neck, ring it around a few times and then fry it up in a pan. 

 

It was the way her face scrunched up when she laughed. 

 

Before hanging up the phone hearing, "Love you, sis." 

 

It was daughters who kept her company overnight, bathed her, cleaned her carpet, canned her sauerkraut and picked her tomatoes.

 

 Her love of the Lord, her family, KY basketball, food and flowers.  

 

 

Dear Mamaw,

You taught us well.  You walked through this life with resilience, wisdom, faith and a dash of spunk.   From you we learned to...

~Pray hard and listen to what the Bible has to say. 

 

~Keep your sheets clean, and cover your beds with a pretty quilt.

 

~Make your home homey and invite everyone for a meal at your table. 

 

~The best way to make your guests feel at home is to make food that isn't fussy and serve it on plates that don't match.

 

~Always, always have enough food.

 

~If you are going to fry "taters", open a jar of "kraut". 

 

~Keep salt handy for fresh tomatoes from the garden. 

 

~Men need a little extra attention, fuss over them. 

 

~Keep your freezer full of local pork and beef.  Beans and corn can be frozen.

 

~Can veggies all summer so you can have garden goodness all winter. 

 

~When the blackberries are ripe, its cobbler time. 

 

~Keep your hummingbird feeders full and your flower pots overflowing.


~Rocking on a front porch is an excellent use of one's time. 

~Work hard.  Just do the tasks that need doing. 

~Mothering is a highest of callings.

~Lots and lots and lots of people can fit in a small house.

~Trust in the Lord, even when life is tough. 

~Love well and leave a legacy. 

You, Mamaw, were a woman of true beauty.
Oh, how we loved you.