Memories: My Mother - Sue Virginia Hill Evans
My mother was beautiful. So, I thought. I dreamed of growing up to look just like her. She was tall and perfect. At least in my eyes, she was perfect. I noticed how men turned to look at her when we walked pass them on the street. Also, my mother had an inner beauty. It was how she loved and cared for others. She always had enough at meal time for anyone dropping in unexpected. She made dresses for many girls whose parents could not afford to buy them a pretty dress. Even as her physical beauty faded due to scleroderma, her inner beauty was still there caring for everyone.
I believe my Daddy saw that inner beauty in her the first time he looked into her eyes. It was a double date. It was a blind date and Mama was not his date. Mama told us the story how they met many times. She worked at the Dime Store in Timmonsville. Her friend met her after work. They walked across the railroad tracks to the other side of the street to the movie theater where they were to meet their dates. Daddy was her friend's date, and Glenn was Mama's blind date. Mama fell in love that night. She was in love with her friend's date, but she couldn't do anything about it. Was she ever shocked when Daddy came to ask her out! It was the summer of 1950, and Daddy had fallen for the beautiful blonde with blue eyes - my Mama. They were married December 17, 1950.
Their love was beautiful. Daddy was a man of faith. He lived his faith. My mother admired this quality in him. Her father was an alcoholic, and Daddy was the opposite. He was a loving husband. They didn't always agree but they always agreed to respect the other's opinion. I don't remember any fights between them. I never heard them raise their voices to each other. Mama wrote little love notes and slipped them in his shirt pockets as she packed his clothes when he traveled overnight. She always had a tall glass of ice tea waiting for him every time he came in from work. When she baked a cake for someone, she always made a special sample for Daddy. He loved buying her little gifts. They each knew what the other liked and every act of their love was as beautiful as they were.
Life was not always beautiful, but they endured. There were good years and bad years on the farm. My Daddy's choice was to be a farmer. He started with nothing. And, in the bad crop years, we ate a lot of vegetables from the garden and chicken from the backyard. Other than the farm, there were the years of health issues. At the age of 12, I started having seizures. I lost weight. Every diagnosis lead to medication with no results. After weeks in the Medical University of SC in Charleston, they brought me home. The doctors recommended a home in Charleston, but Mama did not agree. She dragged me from doctor to doctor. Finally, she found two young doctors who would treat me, a psychiatrist and a medical doctor. With medication the seizures came under control, and with sessions with the psychiatrist, they found the core problem and gave me the help I needed. Then, Mama was sick the summer of 1966. She was in bed many weeks. Then, in 1970, she had heart failure. Through it all, Mama never lost her love of life and her big heart to care for others.
All six of us, Mama's children, hold onto our memories. Each of us have our own perspective. Each of us have our own story. Each of us share her love for life, family, and God with our own children. The miles may separate us, but the memories hold us close together.
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