HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY MOTHER!!

Today is my Mother, Lucille Marker Jones' 100th Birthday. We all thought she would live to see it, being such a healthy 93 almost 94 year old until a stroke brought her down three months before her 94th birthday in October of 2010. She died January 1, 2011.

Yesterday, our daughter Maggie sent me a text saying she wanted to tell her future children about me and how brave I am. I don't feel very brave most days, so I shrugged this off for a moment, then I replied, "You do have brave genes, Maggie. Running through your genes are homesteaders, pioneers, farmers, artists, musicians, coalminers, housewives, teachers, preachers, soldiers, writers, mothers, fathers, builders, cancer survivors, business owners,  missionaries, lovers of children and that is just the few that we know about."

So, walking the streets of Rostock, Germany with my best friend by my side this morning, I thought, yes, I am brave! We all are when we get up each morning and move forward with whatever it is that needs to be done no matter how difficult. I pulled my shoulders back and walked just a little straighter into that cold wind.

So, hooray for all the heroes and brave people in my life! They are too many to mention, but for today, I will celebrate one of the bravest women I know...My mother, the Farm Girl who became a teacher, a preacher's wife, mother to four girls, grandmother to 19 and friend to many many people and always positive!

Two of her favorite scriptures were: "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" and "...for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." (Both in Phillipians 4) She not only recited these verses, she lived them.

The world was a better place with Lucille Marker Jones in it with her cheery hello, beautiful smile and twinkle in the eye that was never missing. Happy100th Birthday dear Mother in your heavenly realm! Know that you are never forgotten down here. God bless us all until we meet again!