[NOTE: The is a re-post of last year’s Mother’s Day offering, honoring my late mother. Except for removing last year’s date from the title and adding this explanatory note, the post is the same as in 2020. If you did not have a chance to read that one, I hope you’ll take a look at this version. Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers out there, as well as those who have acted as mothers for folks who needed them.]
As I was walking with my Willowy Bride this morning (after attending “virtual” church), I had an epiphany of sorts. It struck me that, now that my mother, Elsie Elizabeth “Betts” Lamplugh (1923-2013) is gone, Mother’s Day for me is only a time to summon up memories.
And, of course, as regular readers know, I did that, at length a couple of years ago, producing a multi-part series of posts on my mother’s life for this blog. Today, I’d like to take a moment to honor my Mom’s memory, allowing her to speak in her own voice (with a tad of editorial help) about her family, the pursuit of history, and family history.
The text features excerpts from Betts’ letters to me over a period of two decades or so, as she gathered information on her family and, eventually steeled her nerves to produce a memoir covering her life between 1923 and 1964. The text includes links at appropriate points if you’d like to read earlier episodes of the series that throw light on the remarks in her letters.
Please enjoy:
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For those interested in reading more of my reflections on history, here are links to my books on the subject:
Rancorous Enmities and Blind Partialities: Parties and Factions in Georgia, 1807-1845 (University Press of America, 2015)
In Pursuit of Dead Georgians: One Historian’s Excursions into the History of His Adopted State (iUniverse, 2015)
Retired But Not Shy 