Sadly, my mother passed away last Saturday and her memorial service was today. Many people asked that I post this eulogy which I gave for her, so here it is: My mother, Martha Irene Meason, was born in Atlanta, Georgia on Jan. 1, 1932. This was at the height of the Great Depression and like many in those days, her family was quite poor. Her parents, Lois Crisp and Charles Jaillette, came from humble backgrounds. The Crisps were mostly workers in the textile mills of North Georgia, and the Jaillettes were horse and mule traders at the old Atlanta stockyards. After mom’s father, Charles, was stricken with typhus and permanently disabled and hospitalized until his death a few years later, Mom and her mother lived in the basement of a church near Grant Park. Mom’s schooling ended before graduation, as she married at a very early age and a year later gave birth to my older brother, Skipper, and then myself. Joy, Billy, and Patti followed after Mom remarried Bill Meason. I talk about this hard beginning because it speaks about her grit and determination. Mom was not one to allow circumstances to excuse her from reaching for something higher in life, and she passed that value on to all her children and grandchildren. She worked full time and earned her GED going to night school. She was highly intelligent and a passionate reader untill the end of her life. As a result she was probably better educated than many people with advanced degrees. All you who know her will agree that she was most passionate about her children and grandchildren, and Pop. She lived vicariously thru their successes and her life was her family. Nobody ever left her presence without hearing about the latest achievement of one of them. I’m pretty sure that somewhere along the line she was Jewish, because she was the proverbial “Jewish Mother” straight out of central casting. We all will never forget her incredible energy and work ethic. I have to search long to remember ever seeing her sit down. Officially, she lived to the age of 81, but in actuality she was 162 years old based on the amount of energy she used up. In a world where, by every measure, family values and morality are in decline and crime and moral decay are rising it takes a strong person to teach their children to follow the path that God intends for us to follow. The popular culture now tells us that there is no “real” right or wrong. God and the Ten Commandments are myth. Everything is open to what you “feel”. The breakdown of the family has shut down the only place where children can be influenced in a positive way. Discipline now involves “time out” and misbehavior is often blamed on someone else or some “thing” and the errant behavior is not corrected. Values are always gray, never black or white. Nobody is taught that they are responsible for their own behavior anymore. Every good family has a person who runs things. In our household Mom was the glue that held us together and there was no question about what was right or wrong. There was Mom’s way and there was …..well, there was no other way! If your moral compass was out of whack, she would recalibrate it for you in a big hurry. You’ve heard the old saying “spare the rod, spoil the child”? Let’s just say there were no spoiled children in the Meason family. While I was growing up we lived mostly in public housing. It wasn’t until I was in 7th grade that we moved into a house. Looking back, we were certainly financially poor. However, we were never allowed to be poor in spirit and we learned from Mom that hard work and education was the path out of poverty. Mom had incredible faith and optimism. She taught us that we were not inferior to anyone, nor were we superior to anyone. These years were during the Civil Rights movement and Mom would not tolerate racism in any form. I am amazed at how she stood up to so many genuinely racist people. This speaks about her character in the face of the cultural pressures of those times. We learned that we were what we made of ourselves with our God-given abilities. It was required that we make good grades and all of us would graduate from high school. I truly believe that God has a purpose for everyone. Sometimes it might not be what we wanted, but His plan always plays out in the long run. His plan for Mama seems to have been to raise 5 children and be a beacon showing the true path to follow. In his wisdom, God chose the right woman to handle this most worthy task. We were taken to church throughout my childhood and I know that Mom was a believing Christian. I was influenced by this more and more as my life went on. Unfortunately I wandered in the wilderness for 45 years but, thankfully, I have found my way back now. Mom’s love for us all, as God’s love, will endure forever. We will all be reunited in heaven soon and I hope Mom will approve of my remarks. Otherwise I will be hearing about it for eternity.
Posted on: Fri, 27 Sep 2013 22:37:26 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015