This photo was taken on her 84th birthday in 1978.
She taught us all the meaning of family and loyalty. She believed the worse thing a person could do was to tell a lie.
Thanksgiving at her house was indeed a feast--a feast of family, good food and good times. She did all of the cooking herself in her iron pots. Her tables were set with starched and ironed tablecloths and china and silverware and glassware, no paper plates or disposable anything.
When I was very little, my father would bring home a sack of oysters kept cold under the bricks of the outdoor cistern. Early on Thanksgiving morning he would shuck the oysters for my mother's dressing and gumbo. As he opened one ,I was allowed to eat the little white piece of oyster that is prominent on the shell. There was much excitement because my older brothers and sisters would be coming for dinner with their children.
The Thanksgiving dinner in 1972 was one I like to remember the most. It was before the Corps of Engineers displaced and destroyed the houses and scattered our family.
The dining room table stretched from the kitchen, through the dining room and into the living room. The children's table began in the kitchen and I usually had charge of it because, being the youngest, I was usually considered one of the children. We had 34 immediate family members for dinner that year. My mother cooked her dressing recipe which had been handed down through her family and it was served as a side dish rather than a stuffing. She had chicken/oyster and andouille gumbo and her famous potato salad, German style, that was served in individual plates on lettuce in front of each one's plate. Along with the usual Thanksgiving fare she always had one of her wonderful home baked cakes. She liked Mogen David wine.
The food was wonderful, always, but her love and joy always overshadowed all of it. She made each person feel special. She and my Dad were sticklers for table manners and I do not remember any child ever misbehaving at the table or leaving the table until my father stood up.
I am thankful for the values she instilled in all of us and which I hope we are passing down to the future generations.
To all my nieces and nephews, grand and great, I wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving and remember all of you fondly as you sat around that Thanksgiving dinner table through the years.