Edna T Pays Tribute to Her mother Virginia Shulz Deaton

Today's story of a strong woman is by Edna Deaton Tollison, a faithful follower of this blog and supporter of Christian writers. When she won a giveaway on this blog, she sent me a lovely butterfly she'd crocheted. That butterfly lives on my refrigerator now. Here's Edna and the story of her mother in her own words:

"My mother was born in 1898 and died 1980. She was forty five when I came along and she already had nine other children.
She was born to Johan and Elizabeth Schultz and her Mother died in childbirth when she was four. The baby was passed on to an aunt to raise, but Mama had to stay with my grandfather. He was a full German. He later remarried and the step-mom was not that great to my Mom. She went to school only to the forth grade, but she could read and write.

She married my dad when she was twenty years old and had the ten children. She never worked outside the home and they farmed and always had a garden. My dad passed away with cancer in nineteen fifty-one when I was eight years old and left my Mother with four children still at home. she received social security off my Dad until we reached eighteen. But that is what I was raised on, and she did sewing, washing and ironing, and she always backed cakes for anyone that wanted to pay a little for them. We lived in an old house that my Dad had built when they first married. But thank God I loved school so well that I was the only one of the ten children that finished high school. All of my siblings are gone down except the brother just above me that is seven years older. I am so glad that my Mother lived long enough that she didn't lose any of her children while she was here on this old earth.

She was very Religious but didn't accept Christ as her Savior until nineteen sixty-eight, but once she did she was a very good Christian.

She fell in nineteen eighty on her door steps as she came home from a Wednesday night service. She lay there for a good while before my brother heard her, he lived next door, and came and got her up. Then she could no longer stay at home by herself. We took her from house to house as she stayed with different children until on the night of my oldest son's graduation and she fell at my sister's house and we had to take her to the hospital. She seem to be doing well but on a Friday in June I was called as I live two hours away from all the rest, and I made it up there but she had tubes coming out of her and was bleeding inside. No one know why, but she left us that night and went to be with the Lord.

I have her picture in my family room and I look at her and still talk to her, she was the best Mother there ever was and I still miss her today after thirty years. I raised four children of my own and wish she could have known my grandchildren.

Edna Tollison
Laurens, SC

My blog is http://edna-myfavoritethings.blogspot.com

Thank you so much, Edna, for sharing such a wonderful life with us. --Lyn

Author Virginia Smith & her Mom

My guest today is Author Virginia Smith, a great gal, who writes FUN books. Here's Ginny:

"When I think of the strong women who have influenced my life, I can’t help but think of my mom. Born to parents who were members of the “country club” society, they raised her with the idea that she was destined to marry a wealthy man so she didn’t need to worry about silly things like math or science. Of course, it didn’t turn out that way. She fell in love with my father, who didn’t come from a wealthy family, and they eloped when she was a senior in high school. I was born when she was only 17, so when all her friends went off to college, Mom stayed home to raise me and, not long afterward, my sister, too.

I got my love of fiction from Mom. She has always devoured books. One of my earliest memories is of Mom standing at the stove, absently stirring a simmering pot with one hand, totally absorbed in the book she held in the other hand. She read to me, too, and then discussed the stories with me. She listened to my opinions, as though my thoughts really mattered, and encouraged me to express myself. And she didn’t just read fiction, either. She read everything she could get her hands on. She’s one of the most intelligent women I’ve ever met. This same girl who was told not to worry her pretty little head about science, now reads textbooks about quantum physics for fun!

But I think the thing I admire most about my mother is the strength of her dedication to the Lord. Life hasn’t always been easy for her, but her relationship with God has never faltered. Even when life threw her a few curves she didn’t see coming, she never doubted that He had a plan for her, and that it was a good plan, and that she could trust Him to bring it to fruition. She made sure I knew that, too. I think that knowledge – that God loves me and has a good plan for my life – is the single most important factor that has shaped me to be the person I am today. I owe that to my mom.

As I wrote Third Time’s a Charm, I put pieces of myself into the main character, Tori. Her mother has been the mainstay in her life, and a constant source of love and approval. She provides Tori with strength in the midst of life’s storms, just as my mom has done for me."

AUTHOR BIO: Virginia Smith is the author of over a dozen novels including Stuck in the Middle, which was a finalist for the 2009 American Christian Fiction Writers Book of the Year award. Her latest book is Third Time’s a Charm, the heartwarming conclusion to the Sister-to-Sister Series. Learn more about Ginny and enter her Prize Bonanza Giveaway at www.VirginiaSmith.org.

Thanks, Virginia.--Lyn

Wendy & Her Mom

Here's a story from another reader who wanted to honor her mother. Here's Wendy:

"At 19 my mom found herself pregnant. She waited until Christmas to tell her parents, and I was born barely a month later. They welcomed me with open arms. We lived with my grandparents. I guess I need to add that during this time my mom helped to raise my Aunt's kids as well. She has 6 kids and had an abusive husband, so the kids always came to my mom for things. When I was only a few years old my grandfather learned he had cancer. He died when I was three. During his final days he wanted to die at home, so my mom and grandma took are care of him and allowed him to do that. She was only 23 when he passed away.

From then we lived just my mom, me and grandma. My grandmother couldn't work, due to health issues, and weight, so my mom worked to support us all. Plus to help care for my aunt's kids. My grandmother got sicker and towards the end of her life, she wanted to die at home, so my mom had to quit her job so she could be there with my grandmother and allow her that small gift. I turned 11 the day we buried my grandmother and my mom was going to be 31 in a few months. So by the age of 31 she had lost both parents, her main support system.

She never once got support from my biological father. She tried but back then, well child support wasn't as widely done as it is now. So we made do with what we could. There were times we went without lights, because it was either pay the bill or get food. There were times she worried we'd not have a place to live. We moved around a LOT. When a home was beginning to be too much for us to pay the rent we would move. During the time my grandmother was dying she promised her she'd go to school to be a nurse, so we struggled so she could do just that. I remember helping her study for tests. She got her LPN and decided to go to work rather than going on for her RN degree because we needed the money.

I can honestly say while she worried the times we did without would be some of my worst, I remember them fondly. We had fun. I got to play Little House on the Prairie. During it all she worked hard to make sure I knew she loved me, and while she could have made the choice to either never have me, or give me away she didn't. That took alot of guts especially in a small town during the 70s. She did a great job, she took care of me, she showed me that women could be anything and that while life sometimes doesn't go as we plan, there are hidden blessings in there. I'll admit that when my grandfather died she had a lot of anger towards God. But she always made sure I went to church, and that I knew she was angry but that didn't mean I should be. She has found her way back to God over the years and now I see her with a stronger relationship with him.

She married not long after I got married and over the years while we've remained mother and daughter we are also best friends. She is the strongest woman I know. I could tell you more but I think I might have said more than you wanted. I'm not sure. I know that my mom found herself a single mother without her parents by the age of 31. Her only sister was in her own situation and really offered us no help. She tried to help her sister's kids as often as she could and in anyway she could. At various times they all either nearly lived with us, or did in fact live with us. She never turned them away, no matter what they needed she tried to provide it.

We were all a team, my mom, me and my cousins. She really had only us and we had her. We made it. And she showed me that I could do anything and I'd always have her to support me. I'm very proud of my mom and I hope to be as strong as she is."


Thank you, Wendy, for sharing your mom's story. Her life is an inspiration.--Lyn

Reader Edna T Praises her mother

Throughout this month, I have been touched by the stories from readers about the strong women in their lives. Today, Edna T shares about her mother.
Here's Edna T:

"The woman that I respect the most was my Mama. She was born 1898 and lost her mom when she was four at the birth of her sister. Her dad let some of the relatives raise the sister but mom had to stay and do work that any 4 year old should never have to do. Then her dad remarried and the step-mother was not good to her, but she survived and became a very good person.

She married my dad when she was 20 and started having babies, she had 10 in all with one set of twins, I came late when mom was 45, so I am the baby of the family. My Mom always gardened, and did all the things what a woman of that time era had to do. She had no running water, no electricity etc, until later on. My Dad died with cancer when I was 8 in 1951 leaving Mama with 4 kids to finish raising. My brother next to me was 7 years older than I, then another brother and an older sister.

We all four were the youngest of the tribe. Mom washed clothes with her hands for people and ironed, she finally got a winger type washer but had to draw water from a well and you can be we lazy kids didn't do anything that we could get out of. She sewed. made cakes and did anything she could to get enough to feed us and keep me in school.

That was my choice not hers as she had only a 4th grade education. I was the only one out of the 10 that graduated HS and I did it on time, that was because I loved to read and the school library was the only place for me to get book, I read a book a night.

She became a Christian late in life after I married and boy was she a Christian, when she lived with me she would pray every night and we could hear her in her bed talking to God. Thank the Heavenly Father He got a good one in her. She never had a bad word to say about anyone even before she got saved, she was just a very loved SOUTHERN LADY, but her Dad was a full blooded German.

My mom fell the night my oldest son was graduating from HS, in 1980 and never recovered from it. She had already had to start living among us kids as she could not take care of herself. She passed away in June and was buried on Father's Day. And even after 29 years, I miss her so much and even talk to her sometimes, wishing she could see my grandbabies."

As I always say, "Every woman has a story. Shares yours."--Lyn