Luke 9:50 (New International Version)
"Do not stop him," Jesus said, "for whoever is not against you is for you."
Mom was born on February 27, 1924 in St. Paul, Minnesota as EDITH KATHRYN DONALDSON to John Donaldson and Barbara Irene O’Mally. Mom had one full brother Richard Donaldson and two half brothers, Gary Donaldson, Jack Donaldson and one half sister Carolyn Donaldson, all from her father who lived in Seattle, Washington.
Mom spent her teen years going to High School as the class of 1943 in the Malin, Oregon and Tulelake, California of Northern California and Southern Oregon. Where my Mom’s brother Dick later retired and moved with his wife Jean to Madras, Oregon with their four children and my cousins Barbs, Cathy, Mickey and Patrick Donaldson.
My Moms mother was killed in 1938 in a deer hunting accident on Timber Mountain in Alturas, California in the Modoc National Forest when my Mom was 14 years old and her brother Dick was 11 years old. My Mom’s last wish was to find her mothers’ grave site and put a marker on it before my she passed away. The one thing my Mom wanted the most in this life was a mother, the one thing she could not have that my brothers and sisters took for granted, along with their children.
The deer hunting accident happened near Timber Mountain and my grandmother was taken to the CC camp where she passed away on September 19, 1938. Edith Garland (Donaldson) and Dick Donaldson were living with their stepfather Les Thompson in Malin, Oregonwhen the accident occurred. Edith Garland (Donaldson) attended her high school class reunions whenever possible located in Malin, Oregon. Edith Garland (Donaldson) was very good friends with Loral Kenyon of the Malin Lost River High School and Tulelake High School from 1938 to 1943 a large farmer of potato’s.
My Mom had a total of 8 children, seven that lived as Mom’s first child was still born. Mom gave birth to three girls and five boys and by birth order I was the 6th child who was born on September 5th, 1954 in Long Beach, California and the baby in California. There was in order of birth Sharon, Ted, Jerry, Cherie, Richard, James, Patrick and the baby Darlalu. Sharon who died at birth, Jerry who was adopted out and Patrick and Darlalu who grew up with their father in Macon, Georgia.
Where do I start as I sit here trying to put to words about the life of my dear mother and what she meant not only to me but to all her loved ones, relatives and friends. Have you ever tried to do your best and feel you did the best you could to the point of saying to yourself and others, “I may not be the best but I do the best I can”? You do not know what you have until it is gone, forever! As tears begin to fall from my eyes as I think back to the love my Mother had for me and me the love I had for her.
In 1998 Mom, my nephew David Scott and I lived in a three-bedroom house on Denton Way for $650.00 a month, plus utilities, split 3-ways in what is known as the Enterprise area of Redding, California. This is when I first noticed Mom was having problems with her memory. What could be considered the beginning stages of dementia and Alzheimer’s where there is memory loss with forgetting recently learned information one of the most common early signs of Dementia where a person begins to forget more often and is unable to recall the information later. I had no idea what dementia was, less well Alzheimer’s. I just knew Mom was going to need someone to take care of her as there was no way we were going to put her in a nursing home.
Then on Thanksgiving Day November 26th, 1998 in Redding, California at Liquor Barn an Earthquake happened. The day my life was transformed, forever. In summation, forever can be a lifetime. Just like an eternity is a very long time. One never knows just how long we have to live on this earth. One moment your speeding right along living your life to the fullest and not paying attention to anything, aside from, what is going on around you. Then one day your life alliterates in a twinkling of an eye. Just like mine did when it was disrupted never the less? I was diagnosed as having PTSD from the Earthquake from a doctor at Everyday Health Care in Redding, California.
I knew someone would have to start taking care of Mom eventually. I just did not think it would be me. The person that should have been the one to do it was my eldest sister; due to the fact that my Mom always favored my sister and my sister’s children, above all of us boys. I knew someone, someday would have to be the one to take care of her and I always worried about Mom, even when I was in South Korea teaching English as a second Language (ESL).
My whole life since February 22, 2007 has been turned upside down and every which way, but up. It was back on Mother's Day in May of 1999 when I first moved in with my Mom at the Kutras Gardens Senor Citizens apartment complex in Redding, California. I had just come up from Chico, California on a Greyhound bus, after being homeless and Sleeping in Bidwell Park. I was homeless due to a workman’s compensation case I was fighting in Pro Per against an Act of God because of an earthquake that happened on Thanksgiving Day November 26th, 1998 and I did not want to be homeless in Redding, California where all the family lived.
This was not to be the first time that my whole life had been turned up side down and every which way, but loose. Like I had said, I had moved up from Chico, California on none other than Mother’s day 1999, not only to have a place to stay but to help Mom as much as I could; because I was aware at the time she was having memory problems back on Denton Way in Redding, California when I lived there with my nephew David Scott, my Mom’s grandson.
My sister and her children were the one’s closest to my Mom and it was no wonder because they were the one’s that did the most for Mom in return, other than me being the baby and the spoiled sibling in California, who did more than his fair share of helping Mom, more than my older brothers Ted Dickinson and Richard Garland ever would or be expected to. Cher Carder my sister's youngest son Brett was about ten years old, and her eldest son David was diagnosed being mentally ill with Paranoid Schizophrenia.
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