. to stay out of debt And taught me this lesson. . . I'll never forget(Chorus)

Verse 3

One day I said, Mama,. . . Your life has been hard You've buried two babies. . . Out in the church yard You've known all the heartache of struggling for bread, She smiled through her tears and these words she said:(Chorus)

Verse 4

Her old fashioned tea cakes. . . We ate the last crumb Her old fashioned flowers. . . She had a green thumb. She lived by the Bible. . . each day and each mile She taught me her secret. . . of life with a smile!(Chorus)

Saturday, February 23, 2013

I suppose it may have been on my Dad’s first Sunday as pastor at Watkin’s Memorial Methodist Church in Ellijay Georgiathe father, Wilson Baird, she lost when she was only nine, to love the God who had guided him, and to love Ieula’s own grandfather, Bogan Mask, who had shown kindness to mistreated slaves and bravely stood for his beliefs as a licensed Methodist exhorter and took in Ieula, her siblings and her widowed, pregnant mother when Charles Ervin Dick died at 35.

I love her for the the quiet bravery, dedication to duty, and love of God exhibited by her brothers and sisters, and the love of a young husband and his band of precocious, mischievous brothers, gregarious Daddy Shaw, and determined Mama Shaw.

I love her for my inspiring siblings, whom she reined in when needed, but to whom she gave the reins when they were ready.

And of