a Bit about Mom

Hi!  Since I posted the pictures of Mom, I am going to give a brief history of the little lady.  She was an amazing woman to me.  I know most of us feel that way about our moms.  Moms are so special, aren't they?

Anyways:

Mom was born in 1934 in Chatham, Ontario,  Canada.  Her full name is Vivian Albertha Paxton.  She was the first of 4 children born to my grandparents.  When she was small, she lived on a farm outside the city limits right next door to her grandparents.  Mom told me once when she was about 5, she decided she would rather live with her grandmother.  They were very close.  Now they are together again.  So Mom took her baby carriage and baby doll across to the fence dividing the property and toss the carriage and the doll over and hopped over the fence.  Of course, her grandmother said she had to go home.  Mom was very upset at that.  She thought that at 5 she should get to live with her grandmother.

At 8, Mom moved to Windsor, Ontario, Canada because her dad got a job at Ford Motor Company.  He worked there until he retired.  I don't know when.  Mom was culture shocked when she moved.  In the country, she went to a one room school house.  In the city, she went to a huge elementary school.   It took some time before she liked it.

Mom joined the air force at 18 years old.  I don't remember how long she said she was in it, but it was for a short while.  She left the air force and joined the army reserves in Windsor and there she served for 31 years.  She was the first woman in all of Ontario to become a major, and the 2nd in all of Canada.  She also served as an aide to the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.  She loved doing that.  I remember one time we went to the opening of the Ontario Parliament (like their congress) and we (Andrew and I) were told do NOT run down the hall the other children were running down and scream.  Well, needless to say, I couldn't resist.  I mean, really, how would mom know, she was on the other side of the building.  So I started running, I didn't scream because that would have been to rude, people were working in the offices down that hall.  Of course, I ran right into Mom at the end of the hall.  Apparently one of her friends saw me start running and rushed to tell mom, laughing the whole time.  You see, Andrew and I were always on our best behavior when we were at official functions.  Her friends used to tease her about how we never did anything wrong.  Well, the person couldn't wait to tell mom.  I had to stand or sit next to her the rest of the day.  Mom's friends had a field day teasing her about how I messed up.  Of course, Andrew was too shy at the time to do anything so bad, only I did it.  I tried to convince him to do it and the smart little boy refused.  Good thing, we both would have been in trouble that day.

We had a lot of fun with her on the official duties at times, other times it was so boring waiting and waiting for her to be finished.  We always had toys to play with but you know kids, they want what they don't have with them.  Overall, it was kind of cool watching mom on a parade square giving orders.   (Unless she was bellowing my name, then it wasn't cool at all)  These are just some of the memories I have of mom.