61 Things About Mom

Mom before I was born. Dad took the picture. Other pictures may be found at my "10 Years" post. 

Gail Marie Cornell  Revell

1953-2001

My mom would have been 61 years old today. I have great memories of growing up with her, but that doesn't make every year I've had to spend without her in any way okay. Death robs us every year of good people who ought to be with us still, and I refuse to believe that this is other than a great injustice and tragedy, God's sovereignty notwithstanding. I do believe she lives in other ways than in memory, but without any way to host her at a birthday celebration today, I feel the need to make a litany of remembrance. I miss you, Mom. Happy Birthday. 

61 Things about Mom,

On her 61st Birthday

1. She didn't like her nose.
2. She twirled a baton in high school.
3. Her high school's team was the Churchville Chili Saints. When she left high school for a Christian College (Roberts Wesleyan), her high school year book printed that she was "leaving the sinners for the real saints!" (She was known to be passionate about Jesus)
4. She was allergic to cats. 
5. She loved Peter, Paul and Mary. 
6. Her skin was very fair, so that she could not tan no matter how much time she spent outdoors.
7. She loved spending time outdoors, and took any excuse she could find not to be indoors.
8. She used to make sun tea. 
9. She refused to eat at a chain restaurant when we were out of town. 
10. She felt a need to be at Lake Ontario as much as possible, and divided her time at family camp between talking to EVERYONE and sitting and watching the waves, quiet. 
11. She used to stay at church for 2+ hours after the service ended just talking to EVERYONE.
12. She thought interracial marriage was just fine. 
13. She loved cotton and wool over polyester, and snapped up peasant blouses and hippie sweaters when she saw them in stores. 
14. She never lived there (that I know of) but used to visit Love-Inn, a Jesus-People commune started by Scott Ross in Freeville, NY. 
15. She loved birkenstocks all her adult life. 
16. She laughed really loudly. 
17. She did a terrible job, as a girl, of keeping her white gloves white and keeping her carefully curled hair, um, carefully curled. 
18. When she and dad had to break off their engagement, she ran brokenhearted to Colorado and started dating a motorcycle-riding hippie. 
19. This motorcycle-riding hippie later sang "The Wedding Song" at her wedding to my dad. 
20. She loved Colorado. The song "I Can See Clearly Now" always reminded her of the skies there. 
21. She wore an orange pantsuit on her first date with my dad. 
22. She loved when as a girl, her dad gave her rides on his tractor. 
23. She once invited like her whole elementary class to her house for a birthday party her parents didn't know she was having. 
24. She once got a fashionable layered haircut in late 70s (or was it early 80s) and called dad, crying: "I look like a chicken!" 
25. Her ears weren't pierced until she was in her late 30s. 
26. She always wanted to live in a house with a big front porch. 
27. She read the Harry Potter books before I did. I used to tease her for reading kids' books. You can imagine how I repent of this now. :-)
28. She loved trees, and would pull the car over to look at a particularly beautiful one. 
29. She loved to pick berries and always wanted a fruit and vegetable garden.
30. She was a pediatric nurse practitioner. 
31. She wore a beeper.
32. Her mother once asked her why she didn't go into geriatrics so she could assist them in their old age. She replied, "But mom, I just love the babies!"
33. She'd wear cartoons on all her accessories at work to amuse and comfort kids during checkups. 
34. She got her master's degree while I was a baby. 
35. This means that before I was one, she worked part time and got her master's degree. 
36. She used to fund-raise every year for Easter Seals, which works to support and help kids with birth defects and other disabilities. 
37. She did her master's degree thesis on the health benefits of breastfeeding. 
38. She had miscarriages and losses for years before she used the right combination of medication that allowed me to be born. She didn't fully believe I was really going to be born until I was. 
39. That said, when I was born after a long, grueling labor, she was so tired that when Dad announced, "It's a girl!" she could only say, "That's nice." And fall asleep. 
40. She made me play-dough from scratch. 
41. She always wanted to be crafty and tried everything from puff paints to ceramic painting. 
42. She used to complain about having no "fine motor skills." Dad braided my hair when I was a girl. 
43. Every year, she'd paint candy molds and make chocolates for almost everyone we knew.
44. She loved football and cheered loudly for the Buffalo Bills.
45. She used to be able to conquer anything or win anyone over on the telephone. 
46. She used to throw open the curtains in the morning and sing "Rise and Shine and Give God the Glory." I didn't find this so endearing when it was happening as I do now. 
47. When one of us kids got a good grade or won some distinction, her face got a shining animation to it: "Honey, that's excellent!" she'd declare. 
48. She took a passionate interest in her whole community. She was always on the phone with someone, talking them through a crisis. 
49. Her 40th birthday party was at Discovery Zone. 
50. When she got diagnosed with cancer, I was at summer camp. When I got back, she let me tell her all my camp stories and sing all my camp songs before she told me (gently) that she was sick. 
51. She wore wigs when she lost her hair, but preferred the feel of turbans and hats. 
52. She had a high school boyfriend named Bobby who broke her heart. 
53. As a teen, she had a very pretty best friend named Linda who she secretly thought was only letting her tag along and would drop her some day. 
54. She loved Captain Kangaroo, as a child.
55. Also as a child, she used to watch Mary Martin play Peter Pan on tv and then run full tilt around the house trying to take off into the air. She was hoping some day she would.
56. She used to listen to Jars of Clay while she had chemo. 
57. She researched every kind of alternative therapy and medicine she could find to support the chemo and the surgeries, because she was stubborn. 
58. Even when she was so sick that it was all she could do for one day, she tried to get outside. I remember her going snowshoeing during her last winter. 
59. She loved Nicole C. Mullen's I Know My Redeemer Lives. We got to see Ms. Mullen sing it in concert a few months before Mom died. 
60. That last summer, she went camping at Kingdom Bound. She slept in a tent, with her oxygen tank. She wanted to go!
61. When she died, it looked as if she'd taken her own oxygen mask off. She finally got to fly.