Because of their strength, we are here today. And I'm not just talking about the mothers - but all the women who raised/nurtured/mothered us!
Their strength got us through childhood, but first through birth. What wonders our mothers had...pushing us into the world after we had been snuggled under their hearts so long.
That strength got us through young adulthood, when we discovered our own minds, our own sexuality, our own paths that would start us going toward where we are today. For many of us the strength of our mother was shown when we defied her, and then she had the wisdom to let go.
This Mother's Day I share the strong shoulders who lifted me up so many time when I fell, who embraced me while I cried, and who fed me and gave me life.
My mother in the years before me!
My parents,
Mataley Mozelle Webb Munhall Rogers (1917-2003) and George Rogers in their elder years...
My mother during her productive working years in St. Louis, MO. She worked so that my sister and I could attend a private school.
My mother on right about the time she married in 1936. On left is my father's mother,
Ada Swasey Rogers (1886-1964). She became a guiding force for my parents for quite a while as young adults.
Dad's mother, Ada Rogers, in her elder years.
Ada Rogers as a young girl.
My mother's mother,
Mozelle Booth Munhall (1897-1960) in her younger years.
Mozelle Munhall in her elder years
My great grandmother
Eugenia Almeda Booth Miller (1873-1936, mother of Mozelle) in her elder years.
This photo below is dated '25, where Eugenia B. Miller stood next to my mother, Mataley, as a child with 2 of her friends, at her home in San Antonio TX. I was named Barbara Booth after my great grandmother! In 1925 my great grandmother would have been 52, and my mother would have been 8.
The Booth family home, built in 1855, Hillsborough TX (photo from the 1970s)
And I'll give a bit of my genealogy of the Booth mothers in my ancestry.
Eugenia Booth Miller's mother was
Eugenia Almeda Witty Booth (1852-1875) who lived in the Booth home in Hillsborough TX.
Her mother was
Susan Elizabeth Hoke Witty (1817-1895) who first moved from Alabama to Hill County TX.
Her mother was
Elizabeth Hunt Hoke (about 1793-1846) who may have been born in South Carolina or Alabama.
Her mother was unknown.
I have a few thousand grandmothers, but many of them don't have their mothers' names. So when I look back 12 generations or so, these mothers were usually through their sons in my records. But this post is just about the mothers of mothers. I would not qualify since I only had 3 sons.
