DIXIE WALKER

Lifelong Endeavor: 

WHEN I WAS  A CHILD I HAD NO GOALS, I LIVED DAY TO DAY. IN MY OWN SELFISHNESS.  AS I GREW OLDER MY GOAL WAS TO GET OUT OF MY PARENTS HOUSE AND BE INDEPENDENT. THEN I MET THE MAN OF MY DREAMS AND MY GOAL WAS TO GET MARRIED AND LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER. AND I THANKED GOD
 
WHEN I HAD CHILDREN OF MY OWN, MY GOAL WAS TO BE A FRIEND TO THEM AND RAISE THEM WITH LOVE AND KINDNESS. LOOKING AT THEM NOW I FEEL PROUD OF ALL OF THEM. I THANKED GOD
 
WHEN MY CHILDREN LEFT HOME  LIFE WAS DIFFERENT. I TURNED TO MY WORK AS A NURSE AND TRIED TO BE LOVING AND NURTURING TO MY PATIENTS. WHENEVER I THOUGHT I WAS DOING A GREAT JOB OF CARING AND LOVING, I WAS THE ONE WHO GOT THE BLESSING. AND I THANKED GOD.
 
NOW IN THE AUTUMN OF MY YEARS, OR MAYBE THE WINTER, MY ENDEAVOR IS AN EVERYDAY THING OF TRYING TO HELP AND COMFORT OTHERS.  EVERY NEW DAY BRINGS NEW PEOPLE INTO MY LIFE, MAYBE FOR ONLY A MOMENT, MAYBE FOR A LIFETIME. EVERYDAY IS A CLEAN SLATE TO FILL WITH LOVE , LAUGHTER AND TEARS. MY ONE HOPE IS TO NOT DISAPPOINT MY LORD JESUS AND TO MAKE THE TRIP WITH HIM WHEN I STEP THROUGH ANOTHER DOOR.
IT HAS TAKEN ME A LOT OF YEARS TO REALIZE THAT THIS MOMENT, RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW, IS WHAT IS IMPORTANT . AND I THANK GOD
 		About DIXIE
This is my mom who is the daughter of Isabelle. I cannot ignore that she is the amazing link between me and my Grandma. I am one of those rare and fortunate people who's parents are still married after 50 years, and who I am today is a result of who they helped shape me to become. I learned self sufficiency and independence from my dad. I learned compassion and empathy from my mom. Both, along with Grandma and my Grandpa, taught me that life is about giving back and doing the right thing.

In my family, especially around the holidays, we always reminisce about our favorite memories. Most make us laugh hysterically, others make us pause and go back to a moment that had great depth, while others make us ask ourselves "did that really happen?" So I asked my mom for a few of her favorite memories about Grandma, Isabelle ... here are her favorite 3:

#1
All the memories of my mother begin and end with love. The most important thing my mother taught me was how to love. She had such a gentle loving spirit which she shared with everyone she met.

When I was a little girl we lived in a huge old house in Ventura. We lived in the downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms. One of the tenants was a family who cared for a foster child and she was just my very age. She was crippled and she walked with a pronounced limp but could not run.

Bonnie and I spent many days together baking "mud pies", playing with our dolls and just being together.

After several years passed Bonnie went to the hospital for an operation on her hip which the doctors were hoping would correct the deformity she had been born with. After the operation she was confined to a bed with a cast from her toes to her pelvis and her leg suspended in a sling (this was long before television so time was long for Bonnie in the hospital!). Everyday my mother took me on the bus, then for a long walk to get to the hospital where she spent hours reading stories to Bonnie while I sat outside the window and listened.

As I ponder this now I marvel at the love she showed Bonnie, and the sacrifice she made for this little girl who needed someone.

#2
When I was 15, Bonnie spent the night at my house. We locked ourselves in my bedroom and she dyed my hair bright kelly green, using food coloring. When I came out the next morning to go to school, my mother was frying bacon for breakfast. She turned and looked at me and said, "Oh, what a beautiful shade of green" and continued to fry bacon. This was certainly not the reaction I expected and I was more than a little disappointed.

Oh and by the way, green food coloring does not completely wash out of blond hair - no matter how many times you wash it!

#3
When my mother came to Ohio to live near us, she took in three stray female cats, and she certainly didn't need any more since the trailer park she lived didn't allow pets of any kind! Mom used to put them on a leash outside so they could lay in the sun and get fresh air.

When the three cats turned up pregnant she couldn't' understand how that happened. She had, after all, had them on a leash!