My mother strength courage and willpower
Another very interesting fact about my mother is that at one point in her life, she weighed a lot, over 350 pounds and she's only 4' 8. She made up her mind that she wasn't going to settle for being that overweight and she went and had a gastric bypass done and stuck to the diet no matter what and eventually lost over 200 pounds. These pictures that I'm showing you now are after the weight was off. I'm so proud of her will power and courage. I hope that she might be a an Inspiration to anybody who is hoping and praying about losing weight or is wanting to change their lives for the better. My mother did all of these things and found the courage, will power, and inspiration to make it happen. It filled her life with joy and it gave me that joy too just for having such a strong, wonderful, and Brave mother for a roll model!!!
My mother's beginnings
I just would like to tell you this story of my mother's beginnings. She has overcome so much in her life to have wound up with a growing wonderful business, 3 beautiful daughters, that are educated smart and have businesses or jobs that are successful, with 8 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren. A family to be proud of.
She was born to my grandmother who unfortunately was unable to take care of her for very long and at the age of 2 was sent to live with her great aunt Mable, who my grand mother was named for. Although nana loved her very much, she was a very inexperienced parent having no children of her own. The idea that when my grandmother and my aunt were Young my great grandmother passed away young and her husband put them into a home instead of giving them over to my nana to raise. In the orphanage life was difficult for my grandmother and made her ill equipped to deal with a real life family and home. Unfortunately nana after trying for years and years to retrieve her young nieces from The Catholic orphanage gave up and had to watch as they became with drawn and unhappy.
My mother spent 4 years with my grandmother and was not taking care of as most children were. When she was about 4 and a 1/2 she went to live with nana who was very strict and having no children of her own, didn't really know what to do with my mother. She was very difficult at first with bad habits that were already starting to present at that age. Eventually they coexisted and my mother became very religious and went to church every week and Sunday school as met often as possible. Nana, however, was getting older and older and while in her late fifties decided that my mother, age 15, should probably go into a home. My mother was frightened of that and decided to run away. She unfortunately made a huge mistake by getting married, at the age of 15, to a man, who was violent and abusive. This only lasted a short time, however, before she found the courage to leave and divorced him. Eventually her endurance, and God's grace lead her to meet my father and marriy him. He who was and always will be the love of her life!!!
Business after Business after Business
My mother was very ambitious her whole life. My mother and father over the years have had several businesses and she was always a driving, supportive force behind them. Before I was even born my mother had found an opportunity for my father to buy a candy store which became a large success for them. It was in a questionable neighborhood but they really were a love to buy all of the neighborhood and my father became known as hoagie Joe. It was a wonderful opportunity for my dad and he always felt proud of that portion of his life and speaks of it often lovingly. Apparently my mother had found out that this candy store was available for sale and they came up with the down payment to buy it and were an instant success. After that my dad had other jobs but my mother was always thinking and always working and guiding them and to other opportunities. She had started that tear drop business that is now So popular with infants. There picture is taken when they're born with a lock of their hair and placed in resin for permanent keepsake. Not many people know that my mother actually started that years before it became popular. After a while we actually owned another restaurant where again they became successful unfortunately we had to give it up but for the time they owned it it was the talk of the town. Finally, while watching the 700 club my mother discovered another business. It was a chimney duct cleaning business and my father was very good at it. My mother was still working as a nurse at that time and would answer the phones all day and sleep for a little while and then go to work at night as and nurse and a nursing home. She worked tirelessly to help my father build our business Pickwick and poppins into a thriving wonderful business. They built on it from the time they started it to the present, which it is still open. Although we've been faced with many challenges in our business I would like to believe that God is still the guiding force behind it and has protected it for all these years no matter what things or issues or problems have been thrown at it. Again, I'm so proud of my mother and father for all of thee accomplishments in all of their hard work it lives on to this day and hopefully for a long time to come!
Back to school
It was a little known fact that my mother had never graduated from high school, but after having children she decided that we needed a better life. She was a very strong, intelligent, and independent woman. She always had ambition and drive to achieve her goals so when My father and her decided to go back to school and get ther GEDs it was a sure bet that they would succeed and so they did!!!. After the pride and confidence of passing her GED test she decided to keep going and enrolled herself into a nursing school. She started the course to become a licensed practical nurse. She was in her upper 30s by then but she studied her heart out day after day to get the excellent
grades she received. To no ones surprise she graduated and made so many new friends. I was always so proud of her and all of her accomplishments!!!!
The German Shepard Event
This is the story my mother told often when we were kids. When we met 1st moved into this house in Bensalem we had a dog named Honey, which was a young golden retrievers. She was a sweet gentle little puppy and my mother used to get very angry at her for running out of the house and taking a run around the neighborhood. Well one day, Honey, who was inside the house watched my mother go outside, shoved the door open behind her. We think she may have sensed that my mother was in danger or maybe she just wanted to take a run around the block to make my mother angry, LOL, in any case, it was a stroke of luck for my mother because just at that same time....a very mean, troublesome German shepherd from the neighborhood was out on the loose again. This German shepherd had a bad reputation for attacking people and it came running for my mother, growing, showing its teeth, and snarling all the way. Suddenly, Honey, this very sweet, small, young puppy ran out and placed herself in front of my mother to defend her!!! She had her haunches up, ears back, low to the ground ready to spring up, and growling with her teeth bared !!! To my mother's surprise this very large aggressive German shepherd backed down and went away..... Honey had saved the day and my mother had a wonderful new admiration for this sweet puppy named Honey!!!
The blizzard of 1996.
This is a very funny story that happened of course in 1996 when Bensalem township received 36" of snow and a blizzard that lasted for 2 to 3 days. The week prior to this storm my parents had gone on a trip to Florida to visit their friends. On the day they were to return a blizzard began while they were driving up Route 95, on their way home, the way was clear, of course, in this Southern States and they continued to drive and drive even when they got as far up as Virginia it was still clear and open so they continued. Now in the mean time I was trying to reach them on their car phone to let them know that the way was not clear and that 95 was going to be plowed in on every exit and entrance so they should get off as soon as possible and stay the night in another state in a hotel. They never answered my call so I was worried and concerned. I can laugh now that every person I called told me pretty much the same thing, there is no way your parents are coming home in this storm and it has been posted on every radio station as well so they'll be alerted and pull over, don't worry....... Well as it turns out, they never did listen to the radio or stop. because Pennsylvania, never did block off Delaware or New Jersey or any other state on 95. It remained open!!! As they drove, I tried to reach the state troopers and police and my family to alert them that my parents were most probably on 95 stuck in the snow, at worst or still driving but they all assured me that they were not driving in this blizzard. I don't know why but deep inside I knew they were driving. I knew that they were pursuing the trip home because they just wanted to get home as fast as they could. Lol. A friend of mine Craig tried to borrow a monster truck, saying that he could go looking for them but that came to no Avail either, but He at least believed me and we worried and prayed together. In the end: several several several hours later after there was about a foot and a half maybe even two feet of snow on the ground by then and practically no visibility,, my sister called me. I came to find out that my parents made it all the way up to the Yardley exit and made their way to her house in Yardley, where they stayed for over a week until we were able to plow and get the driveway cleared and get the roads cleared. My dad stated that he just drove until he could find an exit that he could make it out of in the cougar that he was driving at the time . This story still makes me giggle that they were so tenacious that they took on a blizzard of 36" just to get home.
My beautiful mother I miss you and love you with all my heart!
My mother was a beautiful wonderful woman on the inside and on the outside. She was kind and caring and protective of us children and always went the extra miles make sure that we had what we needed. She love to watch old movies and do craft after craft, sharing them with all her friends and family. She taught my sisters and I to be just as crafty as she.. She also love to travel, with my father they went to many places and saw many things which was wonderful for them and added to their very close relationship. They were together for 60 years and had so many adventures that I'm going to share some with you here. They were kind and good people and are going to be now little cherubs and this heavens watching over us. My father thank have been is still with me and I'm going to hold on to him as long as I can because hes special and wonderful tooo.
