Learning about Mom

My Mother was really a nice person. As one of my brother's said "she didn't just talk the talk, she walked the walk".

She grew up poor, with a bi-polar father, who would disappear for days, and at times stand on the street corner preaching, thinking he was some famous evangelical preacher. My Mother said it was embarrassing, and people thought he was drunk, but he didn't drink.

I suspect this is why she was not one to gossip. I never really thought about this,
until I overheard one of her good friends make this comment during the visitation.

"She never gossiped. Nothing ever came out of her mouth about others, and if you told her something, it stayed with her".

I got a few things out of my Mother after her stroke. It was rather surprising some of the family secrets she kept for all those years. I am not really sure it was because of the stroke that she decided to start revealing the secrets, or because she thought it was time we knew.

Probably a little bit of both.