Mom Mom mish mash

I effing miss Mom Mom so much. My uncle got me Dolly Parton's latest live CD for Christmas and I listen to it every dang day. One of her new songs is called Do I Ever Cross Your Mind? and here are some of the lyrics:
Oh sometimes I go walking through fields where we walked long ago, in the sweet used to be/ And the flowers still grow but they don't smell as sweet as they did when you picked them for me./ And when I think of you and the life we once knew how I wish we could go back in time/ Do you ever think back in your memory like that and do I ever cross your mind?/ Do you ever wake up lonely in the middle of the night because you miss me, do you darling?/ Oh and do your memories take you back into a simpler place and time/ Do you ever miss the feelings of the love we shared/ Do you miss me? Do you darling? Or do I ever cross your mind?/ Oh how often I wish that again I could kiss your sweet lips like I did long ago/ And how often I long for those two loving arms that once held me so gentle and close.

The part about waking up in the middle of the night was my life earlier this week. On Sunday I went to a relative's house who lives about 3 hours away. She is the oldest cousin on Daddy's (my Mother's Father) side of the family and just happened to retire to South Carolina about 15 years ago. She and her husband were so kind and welcoming to John and I and really made John feel like a member of our family. She is moving back up north and has been very generous in giving John and I household items. As I was helping her move on Sunday she let me go through her cookbooks and have whatever ones I wanted. There was a Good Housekeeping cookbook with a broken spine and missing back cover. She told me, "Oh, that was mother's cookbook." Her mother was Daddy's sister. I told her I wouldn't take it but she insisted, telling me that I would get more use out of it. What a gem!!! Here was the cookbook that someone I love used to cook for people who I love!!! I want to kiss every page. Later that night as I was going to sleep I thought, "I'll have to ask Mom Mom what some of Aunt Maddie's favorite dishes to cook were and see if I can find the recipes." Then I, you know, remembered Mom Mom died in July.

I'm doing a policy brief about mental health in rural communities for one of my classes and came across the statistic that more than half of children in rural homes that have a female head of household live in poverty. Mom Mom was so awesome, y'all. She faced so many difficulties but managed to do so much. I hope I get the chance to be half the woman she was.