CherokeeProgressive told you my mom died. May I tell you how she lived? [View all]

[A HERETIC I AM]

Last edited Sat Aug 9, 2014, 05:19 PM - Edit history (1)

My mother was born Janet Albergh, the youngest of 3 sisters on January 27th, 1929, 9 months before the Stock Market crash that led to the Great Depression. Her parents were only 1 or 2 generations from their Swedish forbears that immigrated here in the late 1800's. Her mother died of Tuberculosis or a similar malady at the age of 25, when my mother was 2 or so, forcing her father to put mom and her sisters up for adoption. She was adopted by a family from Killingworth, CT. Her adoptive father was a member of the Connecticut State Assembly in the 30's and 40's.

Mom was about a month shy of her 13th birthday when Pearl Harbor was attacked.

Like most teenagers in those days, she went to school and helped around the home. My great uncle owned a gas station where mom worked gassing cars and helping out as a cashier.

She met my dad, 4 years her senior, in 1951 through mutual friends and they married in October of '51, my dad in his full Navy Dress Blues. He was soon shipped off to Korea.

My father was a Navy corpsman in WWII (He lied about his age to get in) and was attached to the Marines in Korea as a field medic. They lived in Connecticut for a time after he returned from Korea where my sister and my oldest brother were born. My dads combat medical experience ostensibly led to him being recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency in 1955. That job led to mom following my dad from post to post for the next 25 years! One of his first posts overseas was in Taipei, Taiwan in 1957 & '58, where my next older brother was born. Mom was pregnant with me on their return, crossing the Pacific by ocean liner. They took residence in Falls Church, VA and I was born in Arlington in 1959. Shortly after, dad was sent to the Hindu Kush, on the Pakistani/Afghan frontier for a 6 month tour. Soon after he returned he was stationed in Saipan, in the Marianna's Islands. Saipan is where my first memories are. Back from Saipan we lived in Herndon, VA where my dad worked out of the newly completed CIA headquarters building in Langley. Within a month of JFK's assassination he was stationed in South Miami, at the former blimp base, Naval Air Station, Richmond, FL. In late 1965 were were sent to Athens, Greece and were there until late '67, returning to the DC area living outside Gaithersburg. This was the longest time I had lived in one place thus far - 5 years. In 1973 "The Company" asked him to take a position in Alice Springs, Australia. We were over there when Nixon resigned and Viet Nam ended and we came back in late 1974 to Miami where dad retired.

Picking up and moving a family with 4 kids numerous times is nothing short of a monstrous task. My mother handled it with good humor and aplomb. Often in the various places we lived, mom and dad entertained or hosted parties for my fathers associates, which would include Chiefs of Station, Charge d'affaires, Under Secretary's and assorted other personnel from the Embassy or the facility where he was working.

She was an animal lover, as we had Boston Terriers in our home most of my life. She was a good cook, a thrifty manager of the home, a practiced Bridge player, an accomplished practitioner of knitting, needlepoint and crochet, and a capable seamstress. She attended Episcopal and Anglican churches in the Far East, Europe and the states and was a member of The Order of the Eastern Star. She held memberships in numerous organizations over the years, mostly church related and held bible study meetings for friends in our home many times over the years.

She loved camping and outdoor cooking, hiking and sightseeing and I know she loved the world travels we took part in. She was an avid reader but I could never get her interested in the internet! As far as she was concerned, Newspapers were just fine for news and if you are going to write a note to someone, it should be done freehand with a pen and paper and MAILED!

While no family is perfect, my mother did her best to raise us all with self respect and a curiosity for life and a love of travel. "Find happiness where you can" seemed to be her motto.

She died this morning at 6:30 AM, her hand held by the Nurse in attendance at the Hospice facility she had been moved to. She outlived my father by just shy of 14 years. When I heard, I was behind the wheel of the tractor trailer I drive, driving north on I75 in Ohio.

I regret that I was unable to get down to see her in recent weeks, as I had been promising her I would, and had I not been assigned back here to Detroit on this temporary duty, I would likely have made it down the weekend before last. I hadn't seen her since September.

Once again to the DU community, thank you so vey much for your kind thoughts and prayers. The outpouring of affection in the previous threads have literally overwhelmed me and brought me to tears. I can not thank you enough for the support and caring you have shown a virtual stranger.

One last thing; If you have an elderly family member that lives alone, please, PLEASE consider a "Life Alert" system of some sort. While it may not have saved her, it was quite likely that help could have arrived sooner had she been able to communicate her emergency in the moments before she lost consciousness.

I want to thank Chris (CherokeeProgressive) for his unbelievable thoughtfulness in putting up the thread earlier. You're a good friend, pal.


Thanks again, DU.

Smooth Sailing, Mom. Fair winds and calm seas. I will miss you terribly.

Paul

My mom and dad, taken probably 1997 or so;


The last picture we have of them together before my dad passed away, Probably July, 2000;