Rita Louise Rose (VandenPlas) Yusvak
~My Mother...
~Born March 7th, 1916
~Married June 7th, 1949
~Died November 7th, 1998
Daughter of Francis VandenPlas and Zoe (Radart) VandenPlas-
Loving and beloved wife of the infamous and hilarious Lawrence Ramon Yusvak-
(Hope that silly link works)...
Mother to Mary and Anne (that's ME of course)... And through it all, a saint who had chosen to turn her Wings to Feet so that she could walk among us; sharing all the wonderful things that this life has to offer with anybody who would listen...
Oh goodness, I miss them both dearly sometimes-
Last year, during the dead part of winter, I had gone through all of mom and dads clothing that had not sold in my previous years rummage sale- As I was sorting through it, the thought occured that I was very hard pressed to give it to charity- (Sort of parting with all the memories in each article of clothing)...
...At that very point in time, 'the romantic' in my own soul rose to the occasion. I have since made a 2 queen sized quilts from those clothes- One for my sister, Mary- and one for myself too...
There are times that I can speak of my parents, and others that my heart closes up my own throat. But that is only because I am left behind for now- A virtual orphan, and have taken up the stick, so to speak, and will pass it on to my own daughters when the time comes for them...
Mom could always see the good in everyone; be they great or small, living or dead, good souls or not... Yet I learned that this too had its limits for her- which got stretched considerably when I had called her one night after I had tucked little Casey in for the night. (KCN was maybe 5 or 6 at the time)...
...Casey and I would always say our little prayers, ending with her "God Bless so and so"... On this particular night, (after having seen the news more times than she probably should have), Casey had also added "God Bless Jeffrey Dahmer" And I was rendered completely speechless... She ended with "and God Bless me too".
After she slept, I called Mom and shared Caseys prayer with her... Even my sainted mother had a problem with it~ (Know there weren't too very many things that left HER speechless)... One of those "WOW" things, and that maybe I should have a talk with all of my daughters... And so, at breakfast the next morning we spoke of what Casey had allowed for in her prayers; explaining that this man was such a terrible human being. She calmly stated that he would then really need all the prayers he could get. And so there was NO arguing with that. We all slowly had to agree...
I can remember countless nights, falling to sleep to the sound of my mothers voice; either reading to us; or on the phone with one of her sisters, laughing almost uncontrollably. Those are such fond memories for me, but can also remember wondering if Mary and I would ever share and know that same love of sisterhood??? (Which incidentally we HAVE found throughout the years). A legacy to us both, from our mother.
Mom loved poetry- ALL poetry. And her favorite poem was always "The Adoption Creed"- She was always so very proud of her daughters- (yes, even when we did our level best to be completely undeserving of that pride and her love)-
Like my father, her love was/IS steadfast, as only that of parents can be. Only 5'3" at her tallest, she was short of stature, but HUGE of heart too.
Like we should ALL- (and always), strive to be...
To borrow from my Unca BoBBie, can I write her name in today as candidate for 'angel' ?
XOXO
Anne
(Oh, and Mom, the poem works BOTH ways, and ALWAYS)...
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