Ok kids, let me see if I can get through this…November 6th…today Im especially thankful for the mother that I was blessed with…today would have been Shirley Bos birthday…I miss her so much…there isnt a day that goes by that I dont think about picking up the phone to call her…so, because Im already sobbing I think Ill just post what I said about her at her funeral because it about says it all…so please indulge me… There is more, much more, to being a redhead than the color of ones hair Shirley Bo Epperson Phillips...the ultimate redhead. Opinionated, hotheaded, creative, independent, loving and loyal. A woman who could strike fear in the bag boy at Albertsons...a woman who never turned away a stray cat or dog...a woman who devoted her life to her family. My mom was just the coolest person Ive ever known. She adored her mother, Bo, and her father, Al. And with her parents being in the newspaper business it gave her many opportunities to travel and meet interesting people. This must have been the inspiration behind her becoming a stewardess for United Airlines. She HAD to have wanted to travel because I, for the life of me, cant understand why someone with the weakest stomach in the world would want to fly for a living. She told us about passengers getting sick on flights and she was absolutely no help to them at all because she would proceed to get sick as well and you can imagine the scenario. But it was a very glamorous time to be a stewardess then and I know she had a blast. More than traveling or having a career, she wanted to raise a family. So she traded in her wings for a husband and two daughters. My mom was such a cool mom. She took us shopping in downtown Salt Lake City at Auerbachs and to lunch at the Hotel Utah. In Bountiful she would take us shopping on Main Street at Mother Goose and then wed have lunch at Service Drug which had the best malts and cheeseburgers in the world. She drove a classic Plymouth and wore a fantastic fringe leather coat that at the time I was embarrassed by because the other mothers in the neighborhood had station wagons and wore parkas. Looking back now I realize she was hip and different and Sonny and Cher had that exact same jacket! From her bright red hair, to her spectator pumps and her wardrobe for every season and even DARING to smoke in a very LDS town she was her own person. When we were growing up she didnt care about fitting in. We were the dorks that ate wheat bread in our home lunches for school (horribly embarrassing when all your friends had white bread) and she absolutely refused to cut my sandwich diagonally. She always just cut it in half. So not only did I get abused for having wheat bread, but she had to mess with me and do it her way and never once cut my sandwich diagonally. She also refused to let us eat Spaghettios which is why to this day Morgan and I are obsessed with that canned delicacy. But by the time Morgan had hit college my mom had softened a bit and would send a case of spaghettios every year up to school with morgan. When Vicki and I were growing up she never said no to having the neighborhood kids over. In fact, shed let them invade our house and we set up Barbie villages that took up the entire living room AND shed let us leave them up for days at a time. It was awesome! She exhibited an almost uncanny tolerance for my father and his religious beliefs. My dad was Seventh Day Adventist. This meant church on Saturday and vegetarian cooking. Somehow she could make any form of re-engineered soy product taste good. She loaded us up every Saturday into the car and wed drive to that church on Foothill Drive. She made the best of it. Shed talk my dad into taking us to Chuck a Rama after church if we were good and she handled it beautifully when my sister stuck a tic tac up her nose in the middle of the sacrament meeting. I dont think more than 4 or 5 pews noticed her tipping my sisters head back, digging in her nose like she was mining for gold or that I was laughing hysterically. My mom saved me a few times too. When I was 14 the Bountiful Police caught me driving a stolen vehicle...her vehicle. Somehow she hid the ticket, took me to juvenile court, paid my fine and my dad didnt find out about it until I was 35 years old and that was because we told him. She also taught me a very important life lesson...beat your husband... to the mail box before he can see the Visa bill. But my fondest memory of my mother is when my dad and sister would be in the dining room working on Vickis homework. Theyd be figuring out algebra, trigonometry, physics and chemistry and my mom and I would crawl up in her bed and eat Hostess chocolate pies and doughnuts and watch intellectually stimulating programs like Hart to Hart or the Love Boat. My mother went through a phase where she fished almost every day. She loved it. But, being the original I love Lucy, she had a few mishaps. Like when she was fishing Hebken Lake and my dad heard a knock on the door of the cabin. There stood Shirley, holding her fishing pole, and sporting a huge fish hook through her ear lobe. We had to drive her to Yellowstone and they had to remove her new accessory. It was the catch of the day. And then there was the time that she decided she could reach that perfect fishing hole if she climbed a 10 foot retaining wall. It was a great idea until she fell off of it. When she walked in the door of the house, bloodied and bruised, I remember my dad was freaked. He was afraid to drive her to the emergency room because she really looked like a battered wife. When she recovered from that incident, she took Vicki, Nonie and I on a trip to San Diego. We had separate rooms and one morning Vicki and I heard this horrible screaming. We ran outside and Nonie and Shirley were beating the crap out of a huge smoking handbag. Apparently, my moms handbag just spontaneously combusted and was burning up...our plane tickets included. They put the fire out and later that day my mom caught a shark off the pier. Somehow we made it home, singed plane tickets and all. My mom had so many talents, she refinished beautiful antique furniture and she was an extremely talented seamstress. She sewed costumes when my sister was an ice skater as a little girl. She sewed dolls every Christmas for Vicki and I. Two in particular were the Queen Victoria doll for Vicki and The Emmett Kelly clown for me. She also sewed Christmas stockings for us. The funny thing is that on my stocking she spelled my name wrong. I found out later this was because she changed the spelling of my name from Kelli with a y to Kelli with an i. She never did fix the spelling on the stocking and Ill never, ever change that stocking either. She sewed costumes for my sister when she became a belly dancer. She sewed rodeo queen costumes for me when I was queening and then later sewed beautiful horse show outfits for me, my clients and especially for her sweet Morgan Bo. My mom spent so many hours sitting in the stands watching Morgan take the show world by storm. I dont think she missed very many shows and if youve ever been to a horse show its like watching paint dry. Dan reminded me of a particular show at the state fairgrounds. Morgan was in her western pleasure class and her horse was doing really well, she was probably winning the class. When all of the sudden a stock contractor showed up and decided to load up the sheep from last nights rodeo at the fairgrounds. Well, of course Morgans horse exploded and she lost the class, but the best part was that Morgans fiery five foot two inch grandma was gonna go kick that stock contractors ass. Dan had to reason with her and to this day I think he saved that guys life. Morgan Bo, grandma was so proud of everything youve accomplished. You are the queen now. You were her favorite granddaughter. And Jake, you were her favorite grandson...When Jake was born my mother decided that due to me and Dans genetic pool that we were going to save the Utah Jazz and produce the NBAs next great star. She spent hours trying to teach Jake how to dribble and shoot. So the time came to enroll Jake in an after school basketball program. Jake had a couple of good shots...for the other team...and was absolutely miserable. She quickly realized that basketball was not Jakes destiny. Grandpa gave Jake his first bass guitar and Jake already had the rock moves down. This was when she knew…the Utah Jazz were screwed. When Jake was around 5, he had a fake guitar and was obsessed with the band Kiss. At one of Morgans horse shows a friend of ours played KISS on her truck radio and Jake transformed Panguitch, Utah into Madison Square Garden. He put on an air guitar concert that people still talk about. Girls were screaming for him, he was posing like Gene Simmons and Grandma caught on very quickly that this was his calling and she became his greatest fan. Only you, Jakey, could teach a grandma to appreciate Metallica, AC/DC, and yes, even KISS. I know its been a tough gig to play not only at your grandpas service, but to play for grandmas too, but she loved your beautiful voice and your guitar playing so much that she wanted this as one of her last wishes. So, good job, Jakey. Shell be watching when you play the REAL Madison Square Garden. Shirleys father was Albert Epperson. A man that proved that it is not flesh and blood, but the heart which makes a father. To Dan and Hugh, she loved you both so much for loving her grandchildren. Thank you both for being so good to her. Thank you Dan for saving Christmas morning (and my fathers life) a few years back when my dad decided to take apart the kitchen sink right before guests arrived for the party. Thank you for putting it back together in 5 minutes but staying under that sink for an extra 10 minutes to save my dads pride. Thank you Huey for giving her peace of mind that youll always be here for me....maybe because we dont have a prenup...but nonetheless...she knows youre stuck. And I want you to know that she replaced her Julio Iglesias cds with Bon Jovi cds and was so very proud to call you her son. We were so lucky to have known Shirley Bo. Blondes are noticed, but redheads are never forgotten.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Nov 2013 15:14:39 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015