Millie’s Philosophy

I never fully appreciated my mother, Millie,  until I wrote my mother’s history..  I marvel at all her struggles and yet I don’t ever remember tears, or that my mother felt sorry for herself.
  When Millie was 7, a kerosene lamp tipped over and exploded,  spilling kerosene all over her.  She was ablaze and ran from the house, but her sister Velma caught her and doused the  flames with water from t he horse trough.  The pain was terrific for months .  Her hair all grew back except one spot over her ear and top of her ear was paper thin.  She never mentioned it except to say how thankful she was that her hair was thick and hid the problem..  The scarred arm was never a problem for her, she just wore long sleeved  dresses.

  That was Millie’s philosophy.  What has happened, happened, just make the best of it.  I wrote about all the people who lived with them and none of them had any money .  When Max was 6 months old we left California and went back to Idaho.  We lived in a sheep camp on the dry farm and she cooked for all the men.  The bad thing she didn’t have any thing to cook.  Att’s Dad came once a week and brought things from their garden and we had a milk cows but no meat.  Dad’s brother Morris (13) came to live with us and lived with us most of the time from then on.

       Mille said, “Winter time came and we moved in with my parents.  Next summer was hard.  I cooked for all those men and had two small children and only water from the ditch.  That winter Att wasn’t happy, so he just took off  and didn’t tell anyone where he was.    When he had a job, he wrote and we went to California.

  We had a good life for a few years but heart ache also.  Att loved to gamble and drink.  He would stop at the bar after work and on pay day he would gamble most of his check away.  Mom finally would meet him at the gate, of where he worked, to get the check before. he went to the bar.  Dad was furious at her.
  When we moved back to Idaho in 1935 it was horrible.  Mom couldn’t bring furniture only basic things, she begged Dad not to go.  I never heard one word of complaint, after we started on that long long four day trip.

   Millie would say ," You can’t change it, make the best of it.  Don‘t cross your bridges before you get to them .  We always had people living with us and when any one said anything negative, about anyone, she would say,”  There is so much bad in the best of us, and so much good in the worst of us, it hardly behooves any of us to talk about the rest of us."
 
  I will always remember standing out side the front room door and things were horrible.  Dad had taken off for the winter and never wrote or sent any money..   I ask my mother, “How can you stand it?”   She looked surprise and said, “It is as bad as it can get, it can’t get any worse.”
 
  After Dad died, Mom had to quit driving, she moved to an apartment in Rexburg,  How did she accept that?  Make the best of it.  She tried to help the elderly, where she now lived.*