My mother, Thelma Barklow, was a pioneer woman who was born in a sod dugout in the Oklahoma prairie in 1911. After her father was killed by a horse, she traveled with her mother and younger brother and sister to her grandfather’s in Texas and back by covered wagon.
She was the first in her family to go to college – a 2-year Bible college in Iowa. She took care of sick people in the New Jersey area and then accompanied her grandfather to California. She went to work at the Covina hospital during WWII, starting in the kitchen, but becoming a practical nurse and assisting in the operating room.
She met my father when she was renting a room at his aunt’s house and he came to visit while on leave. They had only known each other three weeks when they were married. Dad died from tuberculosis when I was only five, so Mom raised me alone.
She was active in various organizations, serving as president of the American Legion Auxiliary several times, and as a member and officer of Soroptimists, Rebekahs, White Shrine, the PTA, the Foursquare church, the Nazarene church, and the Baptist church. She owned a health food store for many years and managed others and also a toy store. She loved to sing, travel, and read.
When I was young my friends all loved her. If they ran away from home, they came to our house. Mom was a 40-year survivor of breast cancer. Her physical health remained good until this last year after she fell and broke her hip.
Unfortunately her mind didn’t remain as healthy as her body. But she always knew me, up until last year when she had to go into a home. I lost her exactly one year ago at the age of 101.
Find me at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/cbarklow/
1 comment
Vanessa Beem
Carole,
Your mom sounds like an amazing and capable woman. It must be tough to be a single mom at that time. I think Proverbs 31 described your mom very well. She worked hard and she had a strong faith. She definitely passed that legacy onto you!
Vanessa