A Marvel of a Woman (cont.)

Momma never told us how much my brother weighed at birth, but he was small enough that she worried about his even catching the sniffles. She needed someone to come to her house and take care of her baby while she taught school. She could not get anyone. Her mother was dead and her sisters lived too far away. That's just the way it was. So, she quit her teaching job and stayed at home to provide the tender care that a baby needs, especially a preemie.

She and my daddy had to move out of the new home that they had just bought. They moved into a farmhouse provided for share-croppers. This is where you work the land in return for a place to stay, a charge account for foodstuffs and other things needed on the farm and for a small settlement at the end of the growing season. Momma had thought to go back to teaching the next school term, but a year of college was needed by then. Again, an offer was made to her so that she could afford college, but she had no one to keep her child.

Daddy decided later to move his family to northern Mississippi, which happened not to be so close to her Daddy. Life went pretty well for them for a time, but daddy started to go to juke joints on Friday nights and to hook up with various women. Momma stayed at home with the babies, of which there were two by this time. Momma had two boys. I was still nestled in heaven getting instructions for my sojourn to earth, I suppose. Fifteen months after my brother was born, I made my entrance into the world at a little hospital called Collins Chapel Hospital.

And now, many years later, I am here telling you my story about my Momma. My Momma was a strong believer in God and she passed that belief on to me. She taught me that things happen in life according to God's will. She taught me the value of prayer and taught me to depend on Him. She taught me that no matter what mankind says that you cannot do, it is up to the Lord. She could have let the situation with my daddy sour her on life and on God, but she didn't. Instead, she elected to teach me in word and by example, to always lean on and have faith and trust in God.

I embraced that teaching and now move from day to day as I try to lighten folk's loads with my living. I know that the woman, who I dub, A Marvel of a Woman," would be proud to see what I am doing in my second career. I am living my life for Jesus and my fellowman. And I tell you this, if you have had your setbacks, and who hasn't, don't let that determine your new boundaries. You keep stepping like my Momma did and like she taught me to do, and watch the Lord make your mountains into molehills.

I hope that I reached the person that  I was supposed to reach with this post. Be blessed, Y'all.

Doing What I Can, While I Can Because I Care,

Alma L. Carr-Jones

Christian Author & Poet