Today is my mother's 96th birthday. She was born on Saturday, September 8, 1917, when Woodrow Wilson was President of the United States. World War I was raging in Europe, Babe Ruth was pitching for the Boston Red Sox, John F. Kennedy was three months old, Henry Ford was selling Model Ts for $360, the average wage was $2 per week and the average house cost $5,500 - who could afford one?
Mom was born in Oklahoma because her father was a sharecropper looking for a way to feed his family, including three children: Lloyd, Harold and Gertrude (she always hated her name and goes by Gerry). They came back to Texas and moved out west to Floyd County and finally to
Bailey County.
After her mother died, Mom went to live with her Aunt Nora in Floydada. It was there that she met my dad, Clifford Thomas Warren. They married on August 28, 1935, when they were both age 17. They had four children by the time they were 29 and a stillborn four years later.
As most people in those days, she worked hard to take care of the family and loved us deeply. I remember going out to the cotton field at a very early age as my parents pulled cotton. When I was old enough, I joined them in the effort. They struggled, but that instilled a work ethic in me and my siblings.
My mother was my Sunday school teacher during most of my childhood. She did not know theology, but I learned the Bible at her knee. She was faithful to the Lord, to her church and to her children.
She still comes to church every Sunday - in a wheel chair after falling and breaking her right leg last March, just a month after my dad passed away - and now toddling around on a walker. The church ladies go to her apartment regularly where they visit and play dominos. She is an inspiration to all.
Today, at church, we gave her some little gifts and she expressed her appreciation to me. I told her when I am 96 she can do the same for me. She said: "I certainly will." That would make her 116.
Mom was born in Oklahoma because her father was a sharecropper looking for a way to feed his family, including three children: Lloyd, Harold and Gertrude (she always hated her name and goes by Gerry). They came back to Texas and moved out west to Floyd County and finally to
Bailey County.
After her mother died, Mom went to live with her Aunt Nora in Floydada. It was there that she met my dad, Clifford Thomas Warren. They married on August 28, 1935, when they were both age 17. They had four children by the time they were 29 and a stillborn four years later.
As most people in those days, she worked hard to take care of the family and loved us deeply. I remember going out to the cotton field at a very early age as my parents pulled cotton. When I was old enough, I joined them in the effort. They struggled, but that instilled a work ethic in me and my siblings.
My mother was my Sunday school teacher during most of my childhood. She did not know theology, but I learned the Bible at her knee. She was faithful to the Lord, to her church and to her children.
She still comes to church every Sunday - in a wheel chair after falling and breaking her right leg last March, just a month after my dad passed away - and now toddling around on a walker. The church ladies go to her apartment regularly where they visit and play dominos. She is an inspiration to all.
Today, at church, we gave her some little gifts and she expressed her appreciation to me. I told her when I am 96 she can do the same for me. She said: "I certainly will." That would make her 116.
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