My mom is now 93.5 years strong.

She was the quintessential farm wife, keeping the home fires burning while keeping two mischievious and inquisitive boys from burning down the house.

She cooked big midday meals in between growing a garden and plucking chickens.  She did piles of laundry and then ironed all the tablecloths, pillowcases, dishtowels, handkerchiefs and anything else that was flat.  She encouraged her three daughters to design their own clothes and then bought the fabric and sewed it up just right (including prom and wedding dresses).  She budgeted the small amount of farm income while providing wonderful birthdays and holidays, not to mention the most amazing Christmases.  AND she was the constant companion to her equally hardworking husband. The list goes on and on, and I don’t know how she managed to do it all.  Oh, and did I mention that she worked as a bookkeeper for several businessmen in the area?

She raised five children.

She was an attentive sister to three siblings.  She was a loving and dedicated daughter.

She gathered her big extended family together each year for a Labor Day reunion.

And yet somehow in the middle of that very busy life, she managed in a 2-year period in her early 70’s to write the histories of her mother, her father, her grandmother, herself, and the Bronson, Lyon, and Wilcox families.

After dad died in 2002, she added to the history she had encouraged him to write and had it printed for all of us.  She wrote seven books in all, beautifully written and including pictures and documents.  This is what I call leaving a legacy!

What does she do now?

She blesses teenage girls with her musical talents and her love.

She serves and cares for her neighbors, crochets beautiful gifts, still makes bread every week, and is the matriarch and example to her family of 75+.

Mom is not one of those people who will be forgotten. She has created a lasting legacy, not only in what she has accomplished, but in who she really is.