Everybody knows that a good mother gives her children a feeling of trust and stability. She is their earth. She is the one they can count on for the things that matter most of all. She is their food and their bed and the extra blanket when it grows cold in the night; she is their warmth and their health and their shelter; she is the one they want to be near when they cry. She is the only person in the whole world in a whole lifetime who can be these things to her children. There is no substitute for her. Somehow even her clothes feel different to her children's hands from anybody else's clothes. Only to touch her skirt or her sleeve makes a troubled child feel better.
- Katharine Butler Hathaway

Born in 1923, a few years later came the Great Depression. Then WWII and Korea. Grew up on a small farm in rural Carroll County, Indiana. The family of eight "made do" through those troubled times.

The picture is a copy of the snapshot my Pop carried with him while in the Pacific theater. It is my favorite.

She remains as beautiful to this day.

Happy Birthday Ma! I Love You more than I can say.

mIsho