OLD-FREDERICK-CO-VA-L Archives

From: Tootsie <>
Subject: [OLD-FREDERICK-CO-VA] Mother Memorial--Thelma Marie White
Date: Fri, 10 May 2002 18:42:09 -0400

A little history to begin with:
My mother Thelma Marie White was born 12 September 1909 at her Mother's
parents. When I ordered her birth record I received the original one
on a 3 x 5 card and her grandfather informed them he was there when she
was born and he named her Sarah. Her father Jesse Melvin White put her
6 sisters in the children's home when Grandma was two months pregnant
with her. She believed she last saw him at the age of two but from post
cards I have found written by my Grandma to her mother he discoverd she
had been born when she was 10 months old. As a child I worried about my
mother never having a Dad and now that I have researched I discovered
she went through life with sisters and her neices and nephews wondering
why Grandma kept her.

She loved me and my half brother and sister absolutely. She loved
everyone of the six grandsons the same even though only two were mine.
She raised me on those old sayings and I still use them. She always
told me I wasn't better than anyone else but to never forget I was just
as good. She always had a smile and a hug you can't forget. One of
those grandsons told me not long ago he will never forget her hugs and
he didn't realize when he was young how important they would be to him
when he was older.

Mom was one special lady who could walk in and take over in a crisis as
if she lived there. She was there for all three of us kids. She had a
loving heart to go with her hugs. She was very organized and she just
seemed able to do about anything. She made my clothes when I was young,
taught me to cook, sew and keep house. We worked many days side by side
either cleaning other's homes, hanging wall paper, doing washings or
cleaning cottages. She somehow instilled in me that to make a house run
everyone did their part. I don't ever remember an allowance but she
made sure I went to the things I wanted. She saved material from my
baby dresses, other clothes and when I got married she gave me a quilt
she had made with many blocks with material I recognized. All new
babies in the family received a handmade baby quilt from her.
Unfortunately she didn't live to see her great grandsons and I am proud
to say I made sure her tradition of homemade baby quilts continued. I
never dreamed I would ever make a quilt (no one in the family did
either) but how could I not as I wanted to honor her tradition.

I am 64 now and I miss those phone calls when the letter was late. She
always said is everything okay? Keeping up with people was important
to her and you had to check in or you heard from her.

I believe when I got the call that she had died a part of me died too.
I somehow feel I faced the hardest day of my life and I am stronger
since.

My best memories are the smells of her baking pies and when she canned
or made everything from catsup to kraut. I loved working in the garden
with her. Picking blackberries and those lazy days when we went fishing
down at the lake.

Her gift to me was letting me even as a young child have an opinion even
if it wasn't going to change her mind. I believe that encourage me to
think for myself and I always have that one more question to ask.

I would like you to know Mom loved without conditions. Now I hear "I
didn't realize you looked or were so much like your Mom". What a great
compliment to me and I hope most days I can say I was. Love you Mom and
I am doing my best. I hope to put her family back together if only on
paper and find her Dad, Jesse Melvin White b. 1876 as my gift to her.
Your daughter Tootsie Shoemaker Tomlinson

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