The Happiest People

The happiest people don’t have the best of everything.  They just make the best of everything they have. ~Unknown.

I’m living proof of this.  I was raised by the two strongest women on the planet, my mother and grandmother.  To say we didn’t have a lot growing up is an understatement.  My daddy and mother divorced when I was 12, and there were 6 women in the house, my grandmother, mother and us 4 girls, Faith, Hope, Charity (me) and Joy (yes, those are our real names).  We were all very bonded growing up because we were all each other had.  We loved and cared for each other so much.

When daddy left, mother had no marketable skills and no education past high school.  My grandmother worked at Avondale Mills during the early hours and came home and worked on the farm with mother and us girls until it was time for dinner and we’d all eat together.

At the time, none of us realized how little we had.  Mother became the backbone for the family.  She got a full-time job, went to school full-time and worked her fingers to the bone to make things better for us.  And the whole time she was doing it, she was happy.  She went to school during the day and worked 3 p.m. – 11 p.m. at night as a nursing assistant.  Many nights I would still be up studying when she came in from work.  Even though she was about to drop, she still made time for us.  She knew if she kept doing what she was doing, things would be better.  She was making the best of what she had.  Because we lived so far from the college she was attending, she sat in her car between classes and studied.  Some days were bitter cold and she carried blankets with her to keep herself warm in the car while she was waiting for the next class.  When she finished her classes for the day, she went to her nursing assistant job.

Even during the hardest times, we never missed Church.  And I know there were some Sundays that Mother just didn’t feel like getting up and going to Church.  But she did.  That would have given her some really good rest time, time without us in the house, some peace and quiet.  But she never missed.

I pray that my mind stays strong and I can always remember what Mother did for us.  Because of all her hard work, she entered and completed nursing school.  She obtained a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, her RN degree and worked as a Charge Nurse for more than 30 years.  Later in life, she obtained a Master’s degree and a Doctorate degree.  Most people who know her do not know what it took from her to get to where she wound up.   But we know.  And God knows.

I don’t remember a time when my mother and grandmother didn’t make the best of what we had. When most people would look in our kitchen pantry and say “there is nothing to cook”, mother and mama made an entire meal.  I didn’t know until much later how they always managed to do Christmas for us.  And that, my friends, is another story.

Blessings to you!

Charity