Happy 85th Birthday Mary Elizabeth Hudson Bell

Last Sunday my Mother was blessed to turn 85 years old.  She was born in 1932 in Ridgeway, South Carolina.  Times were very different then.  Much of the debate at that time was over the causes and possible remedies to the Great Depression.  President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected and began to build a program know as the New Deal to help restore confidence in the U.S. economy.  www.igalegroup.com reported that in 1933, nearly one thousand local governments had defaulted on debt payments and that nearly four hundred charities had disappeared in New York.  The safety net that many of us rely on in times of trouble was shredded.  My Mother grew up in a wooden house with no street lights in an area that was still hostile towards people of color.

I dropped my Mom off at church this morning.  She has to be one of the most loyal members of Saint Rita's ever.  She reads Scripture on many Sundays and also attends Bible study.  She was lamenting some of the struggles that sh has communicating with her six living sons.  Rest in Peace Jonathan and Gary.  We are all trying to make a way for ourselves in this society.  I just want to be as helpful as possible to my Mom as she ages gracefully.  I have to pick up a Rite Aid prescription later.  Thank goodness she is among the living and in her right mind.

We had a nice gathering last week.  Lynne came in town with Bailey.  Malayja was there also.  She spends time with her Great-Grandmother whenever she can.  We had a brunch menu with Julius and I doing the pork and turkey bacon.  Joe Blaze bought turkey sausages and pork sausage.  K-Wall bought turkey bacon.  Mike Wallace bought adult beverages.  Skeet, Tia, Meechy, Toddy, Jamilla, Little Kev, Dennis, Little Mike, my sone Mike, Alonna, Shawn, Jameal, CJ and Jackie also attended.  We had a good time.  I was so tired I went to sleep at 5:00.  God Bless my Mom and I wish her many more returns of the day.

P.S. Pop Bell, you would have been proud.  Grand Dad Joe, you too!!

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