Mama Conway in the mid 1970’s
My Mama was a Southern Lady. She had a sweet contralto drawl that could soothe & relax. She also had laser green eyes that could freeze me in my tracks. They actually worked until I was almost thirty.
She had an indomitable spirit. She battled & overcame cancer for almost two years. I was blessed to be able to go to Texas to enable her to die in her own home in 1986. How can it possibly be that long? I can’t imagine I’ve survived twenty eight years without her living presence in my life.
I have treasured memories. I can see her laugh until tears rolled down her cheeks. I can hear her scolding tone if I acted out: “Carolyn, don’t be vul-gah!” I especially remember an incident where I described my boss as ‘the wrong end of a horse’ & received the vul-gah remark. I said: “But Mama, I didn’t say anything bad.” She drew herself up to her full height & with a determined tilt to her chin said: “Don’t you think I KNOW what the wrong end of a horse is!”
She was a multi-talented artist in several mediums. I’m blessed to have several of her paintings hanging in my home. There was one of me where she painted me posed in a blue chair when I was about eleven. She had me wear one of her ‘fluffy high heeled mules’ hanging off my right foot. When people see the painting, they’ll exclaim: “What a great nude!” All that’s showing is the edge of an upper arm & a calf & foot. I’m always surprised when that assumption is made. I guess it reveals that any vision is ‘in the eye of the beholder’.
She worked for many years as a legal secretary for an attorney in a small Texas town. One story she told was of a woman accused of murdering her husband by stabbing him with an ice pick. In trial, the woman explained: “But it didn’t leave a very big hole!”
Another tale she told was of how she didn’t look overweight sitting behind a desk. Her upper body was relatively slender, but oh my, what a bountiful booty, a prodigious posterior, a fantastic fanny, humongous heinie, colossal cheeks & a delightful derriere. Her large buttocks sashayed as she walked. That was a sight to behold.
My daughter was only six when her grandmother died & one of her most prominent memories was following behind my mother as she walked. Once she stopped suddenly & my daughter didn’t put the brakes on soon enough so she literally bounced off my mother’s backside. We still giggle about that memory.
Miscellaneous & Recommendations 