Happy Birthday Mom

     Every year for the past five years during the last week of January my heart aches a little, rejoices a little and yearns for my mothers voice, humor and most of all... love. It has been five years ago that my sister's, brother and I lost our mother on April 3, 2005.


     Born Patricia Maxine Cowan on January 26, 1933 in French Camp California. She married her high school sweetheart Carl Monroe Edmonds during her late teens. She was a warm, loving, comforting and more times than not a very humorous and funny woman who lived her life for her husband and children. Her second loves were Elvis, John Wayne and the San Francisco 49er's. 

     Mom would sometimes remind us of Lucille Ball better known as Lucy from the "I Love Lucy" show. She had many of "Lucy's" mannerisms and had been in some predicaments that you would have bet came right out of the manuscript of an episode of the I Love Lucy show, oh how she would make us laugh. Mom also backed us in anything we wanted to do and would always get her way with my father in letting us pursue our latest endeavor's. Mom stayed up late at night helping me write my final essays so that I would graduate with my senior class. She worked only the hours we were in school or when my father was home to help make ends meat. Mom did special things with each of us kids individually and took us on special outings as we grew up. These were her and our special moments together where she could just love and enjoy each one of us in our own unique way. 


     The following poem that one of my sisters had found describes our mother perfectly. The poem was written by Alice Leedy Mason and it is titled:

The Legacy

She could not give her children gold

So she gave them faith to have and hold.

She could not give them royal birth...

A name renowned throughout the earth.

But she gave them seeds and a garden spot

And shade trees when the sun was hot.

She could not give a silver spoon

Or servants waiting night and noon.

She gave them love and a listening ear

She told them God was always near.

She could not give them ocean trips

Aboard majestic sailing ships,

But she gave them books and quiet time

Adventures found in prose and rhyme.

She could not give them worldly things

But what she gave was fit for Kings.

For with her faith and book and sod

She made each child aware of God.

Alice Leedy Mason

     Mom, I wish I could have just one more day with you so that I could tell you those things I didn't get to say before you had to go and be with Our Father. All those things that I had forgot to thank you for, things that when times were hectic, were missed. And most importantly so that I could thank you for being the best, the most loving, the most giving and the biggest inspiration a daughter could ever have. And last but not least... to give you one more kiss and hug. 

Happy Birthday Mom, I love you!