mom you now i love you and i miss you very much ...........you know mom i have lost both parents now but i have gained a true father that has been there for me all these years and i didn't see it until i lost you
I first met Connie in June of 1971. I was out mowing my yard and had just moved my trailer onto the lot at Pinehurst, Texas from Alexandria, La. She was taking a stroll up Oak Hill Ln. with her friend Gladys Rogers and Gladys' daughter Wanda when I first laid eyes on her. She caught my attention when she and her friends were talking loudly and laughing and she was wearing short shorts. For some reason, I thought they were talking and laughing at me, turns out they were. I had just bought a large watermelon the night before and had cooled it down in my fridge. So I stopped my mower and invited them over for some watermelon. Well that's how I met Connie and the rest is history. Our love blossomed from there. Connie loved me very much from day one. But selfishly I didn't return that love until many years later. We loved each other very much in the end and when she passed away and I'll always love her til the end of time.
Connie was a family person. She loved nothing better than to visit or be visited by someone in her or my family. I remember when we had moved to San Angelo in 1980. She wasn't very happy about being away from her family. Judy and Gloria came to visit us during Christmas that year and it made her so happy. My Aunt Venita lived in Midland, Tx. some 90 or so miles away so we went there every other weekend it seemed. We had such happy times visiting with Aunt Venita and Uncle Leland. They had a pig farm and watermelon patches. Amanda and Greg loved to go there too. Connie grew to love Aunt Venita and visa-versa. She passed away in 1986, three years after we moved back to Houston. In 1981, my Aunt Georgia came to stay with us in San Angelo when Connie had hurt her back. Connie was close to her also. She passed away the same year that Aunt Venita did. We didn't know it at the time, but Connie's back problems were the beginning of the M.S. taking control of her life and body. She had gone into the hospital in San Angelo to find out what was wrong. She was put in traction but no diagnosis was made at that time. After about another year had passed, she was unable to walk without the aid of a cane and then crutches about a year after that. That was in 1983 when we moved back to Houston. At that time Connie went to John Sealy Hospital in Galveston where she was diagnosed with the M.S. (multiple schlorosis). She lived the last 25 years of her life confined to a wheelchair and was bed bound the last two years . She suffered a lot and endured a lot of pain and other hardships but made the best of her life the way it was. She didn't feel sorry for herself and could do almost anything around the house including cooking, washing dishes and clothes, and even baby-sitting either her grandchildren or our neighbors kids. She helped me raise our children and was a wonderful wife to me and mother to our children. She really loved all six of her children and grandchildren and great grandchildren as we all know. She was a very strong and determined woman. She fought very hard to over come her medical problems but her last stint in the hospital was just too much for her body to take. She told me she was tired and wanted to go home with the Lord, and that she did. Finally, no more pain and suffering.
