Happy Birthday Mom

Tomorrow, Feb, 3rd is my mother's 61st birthday so I thought I'd write this blog about her.  My mother was a great influence on me - she taught me a lot about community involvement, being true to yourself, activism, the love for animals, and good cooking!  My mom was in the Peace Corps in Zaire in the early 70s when she met my dad. They traveled around Africa together going to places that no white person had ever gone before.  She got to meet lots of tribes and learned Swahili.  They came back to Virginia and she got a Masters in Education at UVA.  She was a teacher for while and then she and my dad opened up a stereo store.  She took care of the accounting and advertising.  She was also a great artist (oil and water color paintings, pastels, batik, drawing, etc.).  She also played clarinet in the local orchestra.  When she and my dad divorced she became a school teacher again.  Eventually she taught students at home who could not go to school (pregnant teenage girls, sick/disabled youth, behavioral issues, etc.)

Though she worked a lot and also raised my sister and me, she also gave a lot of her time to the community.  She volunteered at the soup kitchen, was a docent at the Baylee Art Museum (now UVA Art Museum), also was the African Art Coordinator at the Baylee Art Museum, a docent at Montpelier, etc.  She also was active in the Junior League when I was little.  Later in life she collected backpacks full of school supplies for children in Mexico.  I remember when I was little going to the Baylee Art Museum with my sister and having to clean the mold off African art statues that had been in storage for a longtime.  She was also adamant about going to the gym! In fact if she missed a workout or run she'd be very upset!  She also liked to horseback ride, travel, and lay out in the sun.  She had a great laugh and smile.  She was one of the prettiest moms out there.  Just like she did with the Vietnam War, she protested the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, she voted for Nader in 2000, and she was a pescaterian.

Certainly one of the biggest reasons I am such an animal lover, human rights activist, and environmentalist is because of her.  She taught me to stay true to your beliefs.  I remember as a little kid going to the recycling center with her before there was curbside pickup.  We would smash the bottles in the large bins and have fun with it. It was a great way to get out stress. She taught me how environmentalism can also be fun.  We also always adopted our cats from the shelter and her two cats that we had when I was in highschool are still alive today!

Sadly though, my mother passed away almost six years ago on June 8, 2006 to an illness she had been battling for years.  She had a heart of gold and loved her community.  Though our relationship was strained because of her illness, I think about her all the time.  She was very supportive of my activism, veganism, leftist politics, and being a rabble rouser.  She would make me amazing vegan meals when I visited. I remember having vegetable paella one Christmas dinner - oh how I miss home-cooked meals from my parents.  In 2004 we both met up in DC for the March for Women's lives.  It was so cool to protest with her carrying pro-choice signs standing up for reproductive choice!  I know up in heaven she's looking down proud of her four daughters (Ashley, Erin, Blair, and I) for who we are today: the strong opinated women she helped us become.

Here are some pictures of us together.  Unfortunately I didn't have a digital camera until after she died and I didn't work on scanning many pictures in.

Feeding the ducks at Boars Head (1982)

Ashley's college Graduation, May 2006 (one of the last pictures ever taken of us together)

Hanging out at the beach like we did almost every year of my life in the Outer Banks, NC (1986?)

Mom and my Papa Hiemenz dancing (1979?)

Mom, Nana Hiemenz, and my Uncle Cope at my Nana's House (1990?)

Mom and I at the Grand Canyon (1982)

Dad and Mom about to go out to a fancy party (1987?)

Mom and my step dad Ed eating dinner (1997?)

Mom, my high school best friend Jenna, my sister Ashley, and I at our annual Virginia Beach girls weekend (1998)

Mom, Ashley, and I in Atlanta, GA (1999)

Mom, Uncle Steve, and Aunt Harriet at Avary Place in Atlanta, GA (2004)

Mom and I at my friend Kara's wedding in Charlottesville, VA (2005)

Mom's casket and I after her funeral.  Notice the leopard print blanket! (2006)