my momma will always be 29 years old to me.

~she turned 30 and then she was gone.

today is her 80th birthday.

my mom has been on my mind so much since 2016 started

 and i realized that this was the year she would have

had this big birthday. 

 sometimes i wonder what she would have been like.

here's some of what i know about laura belle baldwin froman~

my mother and her twin dora, were born at

home on january 27, 1936.

mom was born first and her twin came as a surprise to the world,

as my gram had no prenatal care. (can you imagine that?)

by the time my mom was 29 she'd had

enormous fun growing up with 6 siblings, adventures working

in the wild west and a chance to go to

nursing school thanks to generous benefactors.

while in college my mom fell in love,

then married and had her 4 children.

my mom started having health problems when she

was 26 and ultimately a brain tumor ended her

 life just two weeks after she turned 30.

much of what i know about my mom has been told to me by others.

my mom was a pretty brunette. 

people tell me she was patient and loving.

she was compassionate, kind and a fun person to be around.

mom had a deep faith in God and being a mom was her greatest joy.
 i think she loved my father until the day she died 

even though he turned out to be a irresponsible schmuck.

(seriously~ just going to leave that at that).

i am thankful that all of my mom's siblings have been

a huge part of my life & her two dear sisters have given me

an idea of the person she would have been.

*from what i know about my mother i'm certain she loved us fiercely and

would have enriched my life in ways i can't even imagine.

on thursday i stood in front of the greeting cards to pick out a

birthday card for mom's twin dora. 

i found a good one and put it in my cart.

i started to walk away and then suddenly i had

the urge to go back and look at the birthday cards for moms.

i never got to buy a card for my mom.

not a single mother's day or birthday card.
(and i love cards) : )

so... i went back and i read a whole bunch of 

those beautiful cards.

i guess it just made my heart happy to imagine which one i would

have picked out if she was still with us.

 i walked away a little melancholy, but also grateful to have been her daughter and 

profoundly thankful that she was my mother.

happy birthday mom,

xo, beth