She and her friend hadn't seen each other for a while. They were laughing and talking back and forth. I guess they wanted to spend as much time as they could together. We were all sitting on the three holes, with me in the middle. That's where the baby seat was. My mother's friend joked about the toilet paper. It was the Sears and Roebuck Catalogue. My mom laughed and told us how to use it properly. She said, "You take a page out of the catalogue. Then crinkle it up and rub it until it becomes soft." Not many women could make using an outhouse fun. But it was typical of my mom; she saw the lighter side of life.

She remarried at 32. Once more, she was widowed. She was married only ten months when my stepfather died. At 36, she was married again and expecting twin boys. Unfortunately, she miscarried and lost them. The marriage dissolved after 10 weeks; She often joked that her next marriage would probably last only 10 days.

Over the years, my mom would tell us funny stories about her childhood. One of my favorites was when she was quite young and their preferred mode of transportation was a big red pig. She and her brother would ride this pig all over the farm. Another story was when my uncle and mother were playing with matches. They only meant to set fire to tree stumps, but it developed into a brush fire. One other time, her brother was teasing her as she was getting ready to go on a date. She threw a shoe at him, which cut him over his eye. In school, boys would dip her long braids into inkwells.

Her many stories over the years made me laugh or cry but always they fascinated me. But, there's still so much I can't remember. Or things that happened my mom didn't tell me.