WHO WERE OUR MOTHERS?

Who were our mothers before they were mothers? 

 
Do you know if your mother worked before she had children?  Was she a teacher, a nurse, a secretary.  Did she clerk in a store or style hair in a beauty shop?

Did she do a job considered “men’s work” back in the day when things like that were thought important.  Maybe she farmed and did chores.  Maybe she milked cows or organized and fed farm workers during harvest.

She could have been a cook or worked in local schools.  She may have been a lawyer or doctor and continued a profession throughout her life.

Women have held jobs in factories, mills, insurance offices and banks. They could be police or EMTs.  They’ve driven trucks and big machinery and owned their own businesses.  They cleaned others’ houses, ironed and laundered clothes and became caregivers throughout time.

Our mothers were also artists and quilters, writers and musicians, potters and weavers.  Women have always been artisans, stitching, knitting, dreaming and creating.

So much has depended on when our mothers were born and what kind of work was available.  What were her choices?  And, who encouraged her.

What else did our mothers do before they became mothers?

Did they love to dance?  Play sports.  Paint or write poems.  Did they hike and swim.  Who had horses and special pets?  Who were friends?  Who was family — and what was the good as well as the sadness in their lives.

Shirley J. Alger - Springfield Hospital School of Nursing Class of 1946

 

Before my mother Shirley became my mother, she was a nursing student.  Her high school class of 1943 graduated into the thick of World War II.  She joined the Cadet Nursing Corps and graduated as a registered nurse just as the war ended.

Before that she worked at an airport canteen where men flew to the war in Europe.  Her dream job was to be an airline stewardess after the war.  Never happened.

Her mother Lina was born in 1901 and adopted into a prosperous farm family.  She grew up with horses and dogs, books and music, two years of college and a job as a Kindergarten teacher.  She played piano.  But Lina never made peace with her adoption and it was the shadow of her life — before and after she became a mother herself.

Lina K. Belden - Circa 1920

Everyone has a story to tell, full of riches and surprises.  Be sure to ask, then listen carefully.