A Tribute to My Mother
Lois Elaine Alvord Adams
March 10, 1930 - December 4, 2009
 

My mother desired to have her ashes spread out over Lake St. Clair when she died along with my
dad's ashes. They ended up dying 9.5 weeks apart from each other.  Here they are together below:


 
 


Marriage April 8, 1950
Morris and Lois Adams, age 20 and 23; 59 Years Together
My mother is wearing the wedding gown that she and her mother made
 


My mother as Miss Jackson, Michigan in 1949
She was also made the city's  Safety Queen that year
 


 
 

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Mom in Parade as Miss Jackson, MI

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Lois as Lead Role in Play
Drama Club, Jackson Community College
 

My mother was the Valedictorian of her High School Class of 1947
Here are her notes on the speech she gave to her class
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My mother played the accordion starting from a very young age.
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She also played the piano and organ and won numerous awards selling keyboards after we children were grown.
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Mom at her mother's home by her mom's keyboard in 1985

Mom at work at Keyboard World in the 1980's

She was a national award winner many years, winning trips to Hawaii, music
equipment, keyboards, etc. She won so many awards, we all lost track counting them.
 


Mom loved to play with her grand kids.
Here she is with Chris in 1993
 
 


Lois, Age 11 with Buster
Mom loved dogs and grew up always having one.
Her mother raised English Bull Terriers and Boxers

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mom at 2 months

mom, age 4; pictured on same horse as dad

mom at 1 year with her cousin Marllyn

 
 

Lois, age 6 with Dress Grandma Sewed

Lois Age 10 with First Bike


Mom, her brother Jack with their Mom and Dad and Relatives In Manchester, MI
 


mom, age 12

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Lois and her brother Jack Alvord; 1944-45
 


The Alvord Family
Grandma Gin, Grandpa Roy, Jack, and Lois
 


Alvords and Adams' - Fraser, MI
Bill, Duchess, Mike, Suz, Gin, Jack, Mary, Lois, Shan, Cheryl
 
 


Mom at age 18

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One More Day
(Diamond Rio)

  Last night I had a crazy dream
 A wish was granted just for me
It could be for anything
 I didn't ask for money
 Or a mansion in Malibu
 I simply wished for one more day with you

 One more day
 One more time
  One more sunset maybe I'd be satisfied
 But then again
I know what it would do
 Leave me wishin' still for one more day with you
 One more day

     First thing I'd do is pray for time to crawl
 I'd unplug the telephone
Keep the TV off
I'd hold you every second
  Say a million I love yous
 That's what I'd do with one more day with you

listen to the song
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Mom at age 15 in the dress she and her mother made



My mom and I at her home in 2007
She had the sweetest temperament on earth

My mom with her Mother, Virginia in 1974

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 "With the Roses"
My mother with my dog, Duchess in 1974.

Story of "With the Roses"

         This painting was inspired by the memories of my mother  and my dog, Duchess, the greatest friend of my childhood.  Duchess pulled me on my bike in the summertime and down the creek on my skates in the winter.   When I was older and very busy with school and work,  it was my mother who then cared for her and gave her the attention I could no longer provide. My mother loved to work in her rose garden, trimming and nurturing each precious rose.  Duchess would follow her from bush to bush and both were comforted from the loss of children busy doing other things. 


Mom, age 75 (2005)
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       Still Beautiful in My Eyes
        When my mother entered the hospital and finally got settled in, she asked if I'd bring in her little make-up bag and cold cream.  I said sure.  During the days that followed, she would try to maintain her normal appearance with a little lip stick and cream on her face. However, as she degressed from lack of sleep, food, and testing, she became exhausted and thought her appearance must be atrocious.  I would look at her face and into her eyes and still see so much beauty, and tell her she would always be beautiful in my eyes. When she was rushed to another hospital and put into their cardiac intensive care unit, once settled, she said the same thing, "Suzie, did you bring my little make-up bag and cold cream?" I said, "yes, mom," but told her once again that she still looked beautiful in my eyes.  After she died two days later, I remembered the song below and chose it to play at her funeral.

 
“You Will Always Be Beautiful in My Eyes”
(by Joshua Kadison)

You're my piece of mind,
in this crazy world.
You're everything I've tried to find,
your love is a pearl.

You're my Mona Lisa, you're my rainbow skies,
and my only prayer, is that you realize,
you'll always be beautiful, in my eyes.
The world will turn,

and the seasons will change.
And all the lessons we will learn,
will be beautiful and strange.

We'll have our fill of tears, our share of sighs.
My only prayer, is that you realize.
You'll always be beautiful, in my eyes.

You will always be, beautiful in my eyes.
And the passing years will show,
that you will always grow,
ever more beautiful, in my eyes.

And there are lines upon my face,
from a lifetime of smiles.
But when the time comes to embrace.
for one long last while.

We can laugh about it, how time really flies.
We won't say goodbye, 'cause true-love never dies.
You'll always be beautiful, in my eyes.

 Hear this song on YouTube


 


My Mother was and is my Angel, My Guiding Light in this World
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My Mother's Last Words and Her Full Moon Night
          When I was a child, I'd sometimes wake up in the middle of the night coughing with the croup and could hardly breathe. All I had to do was come to the door of my parents room, and say, "Mama, I can't breathe!" My mother  would then bolt out of bed and get the stream pot out and make a tent over my bed with sheets, or put me in the bathroom with the hot shower water running to build up steam so I could breathe again.  She saved my life so many times, I could never question her love for me.  When she asked me to come stay with her after dad died, I remembered these times, and also the promise I made to her when I gave her the song below on her birthday in 2004.   On the day she died, her last words to me as I gazed into her eyes and stroked her loving face at her hospital bedside, were those terrifying words, "Suzie, I can't breathe!"  I panicked inside, but tried to calm her and told her to take deep breaths and relax, which she did faithfully but to no avail. We then called for help, and a whole team of people came to try to save her. I stayed as long as they would allow, and then was asked to leave, so I kissed her soft beautiful cheek, let go of her hand,  and weeping in grief, left the room to pray.  The social workers came to help me and asked if I had any other family members I could call. I said I did, and that I had called and called  them, but no one answered.  They walked me down the halls and tried to comfort me.  I finally got a hold of my Uncle Howard who talked me through the loss of my mother on the phone.  I had wanted her to come home so badly to get much needed rest and nourishment, but the doctors kept saying they had this one last invasive test to perform, which as I feared, was just too much for her.  She had developed a blood clot in her neck after the test, but her heart just stopped beating, they said. 
        That night as I laid in bed thinking about my mother all alone in her house now, I noticed a warm light coming into my bedroom window.  I got up and looked out to see a beautiful full moon.  I decided this full moon was a sign from my mother that she was alive and well in a better place with my dad, and that the warm energy coming down from the moon was to comfort me to sleep. 
         My best friend, Ann,  also suffered from congestive heart failure like my mother, and died on Good Friday, 2006 when there was a beautiful full moon as well.  Before she died, I had asked her to send me a sign to let me know she was OK after she passed, and this is what I saw out my window the night she died, a beautiful full moon. 
           At the end of the month, on December 31st, 2009, there was a second full moon, one that brought in the New Year.  It was called a "Blue Moon"  because it was so rare.  The moon symbolizes motherhood, and it is, no doubt, a guiding light in the darkness on this planet, just as my mother is to me.
         Looking further, I found that during the month of March, 2010, there will again be two full moons. One will appear on March 1st and the second will appear on March 30th, which happens to be my father 's birthday.  This second full moon will be called a "Blue Moon" just like the one that occurred at the end of December, bringing in the New Year.  This rare Blue Moon on my father's birthday will  be a powerful and lasting sign of reassurance to me that my mother has joined him in their life together in eternity. 

  See Also
The Story of the Falling Star
.A Tribute to Annie

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The song below is the one I sent to my Mother in 2004. I read the words to
her after she played it, and promised I'd be there for her when she called for me.
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"Goodbye's (The Saddest Word)"
(Celine Dion)

Mamma
You gave life to me
Turned a baby into a lady

Mamma
All you had to offer
Was the promise of a lifetime of love

Now I know
There is no other
Love like a mother's love for her child

And I know
A love so complete
Someday must leave
Must say goodbye

Goodbye's the saddest word I'll ever hear
Goodbye's the last time I will hold you near
Someday you'll say that word and I will cry
It'll break my heart to hear you say goodbye

Mamma
You gave love to me
Turned a young one into a woman

Mamma
All I ever needed
Was a guarantee of you loving me

'Cause I know
There is no other
Love like a mother's love for her child

And it hurts so
That something so strong
Someday will be gone, must say goodbye

Goodbye's the saddest word I'll ever hear
Goodbye's the last time I will hold you near
Someday you'll say that word and I will cry
It'll break my heart to hear you say goodbye

But the love you gave me will always live
You'll always be there every time I call
You offered me the greatest love of all
You take my weakness and you make me strong
And I will always love you 'til forever comes

And when you need me
I'll be there for you all the way
I'll be there all life through
I'll be there this I guarantee

Mamma, I'll be
I'll be there through the darkest nights
I'll be the wings that guide your broken flight
I'll be your shelter through the raging storm
And I will love you 'till forever comes

Goodbye's the saddest word I'll ever hear
Goodbye's the last time I will hold you near
Someday you'll say that word and I will cry
It'll break my heart to hear you say goodbye

'Till we meet again...
Until then...
Goodbye
 

Listen to this Precious Song on YouTube
see also my poems about moms page


 
 
The Story of the Falling Star
       One night, shortly after my mother died,  I became concerned because  water started pouring out of a pipe outside the screened in area of her pool.  That morning I had added a little water to it with the hose after I noticed some had evaporated.  I had just moved from MI to help my mom after my dad died, and she had only shown me one time how to add water to the pool when it reached a certain level.    A friend was coming over, and so when he got to the house, I asked him if he  knew what the pipe with the water coming out might be, but he didn't know.   I decided to double check to see if I had accidentally left the  faucet running by the side of the house, but  I found I hadn't.  I then looked up into the dark, starry eastern sky, observing the constellations  and remembering the full moon that appeared in this very same location the night she died, and cried out, "Oh Mom, send me a sign to let me know you are in heaven with dad, and that I will be OK without you!"  Then to my utter amazement, and before I could even finish this sentence,  a bright yellow swirling ball of light suddenly formed  in the sky right before my eyes, and then soared across the sky, diminishing into a tiny dot in space.   I exclaimed, "Wow! A falling star!   My friend who was right there beside me, witnessed it as well.  We were both astonished!  I had asked my mom to send me a sign at that very moment, and it was undeniable that she did! Now I know she is OK and alive somewhere in a better place,  and  that she will be watching over me as I try to live without her on this planet.  I didn't worry about the water anymore and believed it was just an overflow pipe designated for the pool.  -Suzanne 

 
 
"Origin of Woman"
(Hebrew Talmud)

Be very careful if you make a women cry
because God counts her tears
The woman came out of man's rib,
Not from his feet to be walked upon,
Not from his head to be superior,
but from his side to be equal.
Under the arm to be protected
 and next to the heart to be loved. 


See Also
A Tribute to My Father
Morris Eugene Adams
March 30, 1927-September 21, 2009
 
 

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