A last postcard from Mom...

Last week I started digging through my camp supplies, planning for what I needed to do this summer for camp in July. I found the memory verses I needed and some other notes for events I am needing to plan this year. I also found a postcard Mom sent to us while at camp which brought a smile to my face as I read it.

For years, ever since we have attended camp in July, Mom has always written us a postcard, if not more than one during the week. It wasn't really necessary, we are only gone for a week, but she always liked to write what was going on at home with her and Dad and she always enjoyed it if we would write a note to her.

With cell phones, the past several years we have talked on the phone during the week instead of using snail mail. However Mom still usually sent one postcard to us during the two weeks we were gone.

As I read this postcard, it sounds just like Mom and what she would write. She wrote this July 17th, 2006. It was one of the last things she was able to write before her health started rapidly declining in August. Little did we know at the time, that this was the last note we would get from Mom and how difficult the next few months would be.

In July she started having difficulty writing (Unknown to us at the time - the location of the tumor in her brain was affecting fine motor skills such as writing or typing.) and she even says so in this postcard. Here are a few of the things she wrote. Mom wrote in shorthand with lots of abbreviations, so you have to decipher what she is saying. :)

Hi, Am watering Sun PM & Mon AM. Sun 101 degrees, Hutch 104 degrees. Dad stepped in the house next door. He said there were still some minor things still inside. So they have to finish cleaning. I have trouble writing - sorry. Dad is separating cattle this AM. I'm watering. We'll pray that the pkg. to England will arrive. Forecast - 107 degrees here today. Big Mama gets so hot outside. I spray her with water & give her ice water to drink. So sorry it's really hot there too & humid. Everything is so dry. Dad is watering the Cedar trees here. Krissa, I will take your video/CD's back to Lib. on Wed. They're due Friday. Miss you - tell my long lost daughter - Ruth - Hello! Love, Mom

Mom was always on top of things - watering her flowers, making sure the order I sent to England arrived, taking care of the dog next door and taking Krissa's stuff back to the library before it was due. How I will miss trying to decode a postcard from Mom this summer!!