Memoirs
Heart of Gold
My Mom's name was Agnes. Her maiden name was Greene. She was the youngest of five children. She had one sister and three brothers. Their names are/were Ina Mae Dooley, Everette Greene, James Greene and Norman Greene. Two of Mom's siblings are also deceased. Norman died of lung cancer at the age of fifty-six in 2001.
The other sibling who is deceased was Mom's younger brother. His name was Burkette Greene Junior. Sadly, he died when he was only a month or two old. It's always tragic when a baby dies.
Mom had a heart of gold. She was as sweet as maple syrup. She gave money to the Oral Roberts Ministry and to the homeless. Mom knew that homeless people are human beings and deserve respect.
Mom was good to everybody. In 1995, my cousin was living with his girlfriend. He wanted to marry her but needed twenty dollars to be able to do so. Mom gave him the money so that he and his girlfriend would no longer be living in sin.
Just several months before Mom died, my friend Tammy needed a stove. Mom gave her $150.00 so that she could buy a used stove.
Mom's uncle died in 1985 and left her some money. She gave my brother and I each $1,000 of it. I had a lot of fun spending that money and it was very generous of her to give it to us. Mom wasn't a saint but she was close.
Mom loved cats and dogs. For many years, Chihuahua's were her favorite dog breed. She had three Chihuahua dogs. Their names were Penny, Bobby and Chico. Last August I adopted a Chihuahua and named her after Mom.
Mom's favorite pet of all time was a solid white cat named Boy. She was devastated when Boy died in 2009 at the age of seventeen.
Mom was born and raised in Sneedville, Tennessee. She and Dad bought a house in Sneedville in 2011 and lived there for the last two years of their lives.
I faced my worst nightmare when Mom died last March at the age of sixty-four. I would've rather been disembowled than to face her death. I never thought that Mom's sister would outlive her but she has. I always assumed that Ina Mae would go first because she's eleven years older than Mom. Sadly, Mom was a smoker. That may have played a role in her death.
Mom had to face the tragedy of losing her mother when she was only eight years old. My late Grandmother was named Laura and she died in 1957. Fourteen years before I was born. Mom looked very much like her mother. Mom's father died at the age of eighty-seven in 1998.
Mom was the greatest person who I've ever known. She loved me more than anybody else ever has and the feeling was mutual. She always went out of her way to be good to others. She was very special and unique. She was one hell of a lady.
01-Feb-2014
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Randy Johnson
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If it's any consolation, Randy, I feel exactly the same way about my mum, based on the very same merits of a 'heart of gold' that everyone who knew her would attest to. She was blessed to live beyond 90, and would have reached her 100th, I'm sure, had she not had a fall and had to undergo a hip replacement at the age of 86. Unfortunately, she was too frail to regain her legs, and spent her last years in a nursing home where deterioration set in, the most awful being pressure sores. I remember her telling me as a boy, when I asked her if I was good-looking, 'Handsome is as handsome does' - something that made a deep impression on me, for it being so true! |
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