My "T"

Have I told you about my T yet?  I mention her often but I never refer to her as "T".  T is my stepmom.  She came into my life when I was almost 4 years old and my brother was about 2.  It was soon after my parents divorce.  My brother was little and couldn't say her real name and so we called her T which she liked because she knew she wasn't our mother and we didn't call her mom, but she didn't want us to call her by her first name because it just seemed to formal.  So we call her "T" and it is just a little letter, but it holds a lot of meaning. 

When I first met her I was hiding behind my grandmother's skirt because I was really shy.  I remember her wearing a rabbit fur white jacket and some big sunglasses (it was the early 80's) and she was beautiful.  I do mean gorgeous.  She was so nice to me and she had the voice of an angel.  She sang with my dad as he played the guitar.  It wasn't long after I met her that she married my dad.

Times were not always smooth because divorce is always complicated, but T did a great job of making childhood fun and helping us forget all of the rest of the stuff.  When we were really little she would tell us stories about my aunt's dog.  She made up a whole serious of stories about the dog's fleas.  The fleas were in a circus and they had all sorts of adventures and we loved hearing all about them.  Obviously it made an impression on me because I remember them to this day.

She always did my hair in such a pretty way and sometimes we would wear matching outfits like our Christmas pajamas and our Easter dresses.  She taught me how to sew starting with Barbie dresses and onto vests that I wore in 6th grade.  She would make the most ordinary things fun like car rides.  I enjoyed long car rides because she would sometimes take my dad's lunchbox and put special snacks in it for us to eat on the way.  She made the best birthday cakes - like my barbie cake and my brother's Incredible Hulk cake.  She did lots of crafty things with us.  She helped me make Christmas ornaments and lots of other things.

We would go on family bike rides and she would pack us a picnic lunch.  She made several of my Halloween costumes.  She taught us how to decorate Christmas cookies.  She makes the best mashed potatoes that you have ever tasted (and she also makes amazing potato salad and deviled eggs, but I don't eat those things so I take my husband's word for it).

She always cleans but she never made us clean because she thought we had such little time with them as it was (because we spent half the week with my mom) that she didn't want us to have to clean while we were there.  She brought us into her family and we loved them all so dearly - Mamaw and all our aunts and uncles and our cousins - she has 6 brothers and sisters.

She loves the Lord and always took us to church (as did my Dad) and always kept us on the straight and narrow.

She loves every part of being a Grandma.  She buys the kids fun little toys and she does crafts with them.  She makes every holiday so memorable with all the time and care she takes in decorating and picking things out for each person.

She is pretty great.  We always kid about the whole wicked stepmother thing, but I honestly hate that term because when I have to introduce her I have to say "This is my stepmom."  But in reality, she is so much more than that, she is my T.  I love you T, Happy Mother's Day!