jan. 27th, 1936

 76 years ago today, on jan. 27th, my mother laura baldwin was born. my grandmother had 6 of her 7 children at home in her bed, and when she thought the time was near, she sent my grandpa to town to get old dr. burns. a lot of women in rural areas at that time had no prenatal care, and can you imagine my grandfather's surprise when he got back to the farm with the dr. and my gram had already delivered, not just my mother, but a fraternal twin too! they had chosen the name laura for my mother, (born first) but now they had a dilemma, they needed a name for her twin sister. they decided to name her dora, each one named after one of their grandmothers. laura and dora it was, two precious little girls that joined their 2 older brothers. my momma was always a good head taller than her twin sister and strikingly dark, while dora was a beautiful petite blond.



Dora on the left, my Mom on the right




the twins senior picture

mom grew up on a farm near milan, mn. she and her siblings loved living right on the banks of the chippewa river and spent many happy days playing in it, while their mother paid little attention to them. it was sink or swim i guess. (and not a single one of the 7 drowned either-man those were the days.) my gram used to joke that she'd count their heads as they came up over the hill at night and some days she was so overwhelmed by her big family-that she'd mutter "shucks" when all 7 came running for the supper table. : )  and who could blame her really? my gram was funny and she was real.




being "capped",  a tradition for nurses


my dear momma went through high school and then on to nursing school and became an RN. she got married and by age 28 had 4 children...and  then she found out she had a brain tumor. we only had her for 2 more years. she lived just 2 weeks past her 30th birthday.



this is my mom's brother Thomas wearing a wig to make her laugh after
her brain surgery. (her head had been shaved).


so many days i have longed for her. i wish i could have known her-really known her. every single thing i have ever heard told about her make me proud to be her daughter. at her funeral (on valentines day) the pastor said "laura loved, even more than she WAS loved".

* happy birthday mom. i love you~
happy birthday to my dear aunt dora too!

xo, beth


my sister, mom and i--wasn't she lovely?

one last thing...i promise not to write about sad things now for awhile, but since my blog is fairly new
i just couldn't pass up the opportunity to tell you about my mom. :   )