Mom-Part 3

FROM PATTI:

Things I will always remember about Mom. The full Christmas tree every Christmas. The matching pajamas we always wore - a tradition I adopted with my children. Getting caught "stealing" Santa and the elf from the lamp in the living room to sleep with. I will never forget the Christmas Eve parties Mom and Dad always had on Coshway. Me and Danine always had to “Try” and go to bed while the party was going on. While Sal John and Tracy snuck out to midnight mass. Then came the yell – “SANTAS HERE SANTAS HERE!” We would jump out of bed and inevitably always just miss him! So we would get up and open our presents. Eventually get scurried back off to bed until the morning when we could again wake up to play with our toys. I remember the “staples” always found in an overstuffed stocking every year. Nail clippers, emery boards, freshen up gum, toe socks, toothbrush. Oh so much fun – never could get everything back in. Later seeing the ping pong table just bursting with the gifts she bought for everyone. She started shopping in July for Christmas and there was such thought but into everything she bought. Did she go overboard? Absolutely but that was MOM! Sneaking me a Christmas stocking so no one else knew. I remember every Christmas making cookies with Mom, Kristen, Me, Lexie, Rachel, Gary and Spencer. Rudolph never made it out of the process in one piece. There was always more flour and frosting on Mom and the girls than anything. Sprinkles everywhere in the kitchen
The valentines chocolate heart next to my cereal bowl every valentine’s day because she left for work before we got up for school. The Saturdays we spent going between Kenmore Dance Studio where Me Tracy and Danine took dance and Kenmore Lanes where John and Sal bowled. Every summer going to Crystal Beach for Tonawanda Days with the Hogenkamps. I remember Mom reading to me from the Children’s Bible on the floor in the living room when I was in kindergarten. Falling asleep on her butt on the couch when she laid down for a nap. Whenever Mom left for any extended period of time I had to take her pillow because it smelled like her and it made me feel safe to sleep with it. (by the way....that’s where Mom's pillow is incase anyone was looking for it!) I have it old habits’ die hard! :-). Every Easter making Chocolate. The bowling bunny never made it in one piece (see a pattern here?) All the summer days at the pool Steve trying to throw everyone in Dom trying to get on a raft. All the bar b ques in the back yard with the frozen rolls. HMMM frozen rolls in the summer and burned rolls every Christmas! ODD? The first time Mom met Steve, he was laying on the floor in the family room watching a football game - Mom went to step over him and ripped one! HELLO! Once Mom started laughing we all knew what was coming next - more toots and then the teeth! Her taking out her teeth and shinning the flash light under her chin. I remember the endless arguments about going swimming. When we were young and calling her at Taylor Devices or when we were older on Wadsworth sneaking out of the house hoping Kristen the nark didn’t catch us so we could go in Sellers or Marinolas pool. I remember all the company picnics we went to at Taylor Devices but no one else had kids except Jill Fritz so we all became friends with the Fritz family. Jill Fritz is the one who hosted Mom’s Baby Shower for Kristen at her house on Ward Road In NT. During the blizzard of ’77 Mom was stuck on Tonawanda Island cause they thought everyone had left so she was stuck there with Rosanne Piccio until someone with a truck got them off the island. My Birthday was during that time and mom hadn’t bought me a present yet so she walked from our house on Coshway to Convenient to buy me a birthday present. She bought me tiddly winks and comic books. She again re-gifted the tiddly winks to me on my 30th birthday and when cleaning out Mom’s basement I found my comic books. I was sooo excited! I remember Mom at everyone of my games that I cheered at whether it was basketball football wresting didn’t matter she was there home or away rain or shine! Mom Dom and Kris came the cheering competitions every year at Wilson none more important than my senior year when I didn’t make the finals for individuals and she had to pick me up off the ground. When I became a coach she was still there at every game and every competition cheering on my girls!
I remember everyone walking around Wadsworth Ct. in their robes to coffee clotch at each other’s houses in the morning. I remember Mom making the curtains for Gary’s bedroom when I was pregnant so his room could all be Mickey Mouse. I remember her and Dom always being the first ones to the hospital when I had any of the kids. All the miscues with hair color she used to have----Pink hair, White hair, deep deep red almost purple hair. You name it she had it! But then again I am catching up! I miss her talking to me on the phone all the way home every day from work. She would listen to me rant and rave for the full 40 minute drive if I had to. She always would listen!

She loved to spoil all her children and her grandchildren they could do no wrong. She loved to listen to Rachel say Purpow Berd that carried a puse! She loved to read with the kids do math flash cards or just sit and play with her dickens village with them! All the years at the canal fest pay one price ride days. Always the hottest day of the year and she was there with me every year! she had to go with me - she had to take the kids on the Marry –go-round cause it made me sick to stand next to the horse and hold them on! Mom sending Dom down to the parade at 1 in the afternoon to save "our" seats! The Craft show every Saturday and Sunday! and then the fireworks to round out the week. How completely appropriate that she would wait to go “home” till after the canal fest ended! We knew - we all knew she would not go home till it was over. Even from her bed she didn't miss the parade - we watched it the next day on cable! LOL talk about torture - she loved it. It wasn't always easy with Mom we all had our disagreements but that was who Mom was and who she raised us all to be strong and independent and boy that came back to bite her didn't it? That final week all the laughs and long talks we all had with her alone or all together. She was so concerned that she didn't buy Spencer a birthday present! The day she grabbed my arm so hard I had to look to see who did it! (she really had something important to say!)! LOL. She even allowed me to brush her teeth that morning, did you know that? Jeannie and I had given her a sponge bath and changed her clothes and I decided to brush her teeth. But I couldn't do it because she had her lips so clenched I couldn’t get the toothbrush in. So I told her "come on Mom open up I can't get to your teeth you're worse than Specer!" She immediately opened her lips and gave me that cheap fake smile (oh you all know what I mean!) so I could get to her teeth!
The song that was on the TV the moment she left us at 2:30 Monday July 23. Home by Chris Daughtry. Did she do it on purpose? I believe she did as a final gift to let us know she was going to be ok! Cause in true Mom fashion she worried about each and every one of us right till the very end!
We all have a lot of Mom in us. Ok some of us more than others but, we all do in the little things we do...whether it's matching Christmas pajamas, the items in the stockings, the valentines chocolates, or the simple little ways we show we love someone, Mom will always live on and be remembered for being our Mom and we will make sure Kristen and Daryl’s children know their Grandma Carol! I could go on and on forever and bore everyone but what I will always remember most is how much she loved us all how incredibly stubborn she was and how stunningly beautiful she was. I had more fun with her as we got older than I think we ever did when I lived at home. Too much alike to live in the same house I guess. She stood up for what she thought was right and you weren’t going to convince her otherwise. How many times did her computer go on NL?? But no matter what she loved us all. And we All Loved Her!