Mom retired a long time ago, but I suppose she really didn't retire because she had spent the last 20 years or so taking care of both her step-father Carl after his stroke and then her mother, Laura, who most sadly passed in 2005.
She's still sharp as a whip, with the same wry sense of humor. She loves being surrounded by her great-grandbabies, well, they aren't babies anymore, Adrian is 8, Enrique is 6, and Shyann is 4.
My sisters, Debbie and Shawn Mari are always celebrating something, they love cooking and family get togethers, so, I arrived knowing there was going to be a huge production over Mom's birthday, there was a cake, candles, and balloons of course. It was great sitting at the dinner table watching Shyann, Enrique and Adrian competing over who was better at decorating the cupcakes that Shawn Mari had just taken out of the oven.
I truly can't remember the last time I was here in Austin to celebratel Mom's birthday. I've been living out of state since 1997. So, it's nice being home and being part of family events.
My mother, Laura Mae McAcy was born on September 8, 1939 in New Orleans, Louisiana to Laura Mae Stewart of New Iberia and James Elbert McAcy, of New Orleans. Mom describes her dad as a "pussycat," but, he was a huge man at 6 foot, 5 inches tall.
Mom was born the year WWII broke out. Her father and uncles served in the military and the women in the family worked in the shipyards in Westwego. She was 6 years old and taking her first Holy Communion by the time the war ended.
In the 1950's Mom was living most of the time with her grandmother, Blanche and step-grandfather Galbert Benoit in New Iberia, where she attended Mount Carmel Catholic School.
She liked listening to the new sounds of Doo Wop music which was popular, she also liked listening to Johnny Cash and Elvis, back then, it was called Rockabilly music, that was before it was called Country Music. Mom also had a really nice album collection of broadway musicals like South Pacific and Oklahoma and I remember playing those records and singing them over and over again.
She was still young and styled her hair with a bouffant, the latest style, when she experienced the 1960's. This was a time when minimum wage was $1.00 an hour and gas prices were around 31 cents a gallon. This was also a time when we grew up wondering when "the bomb" might drop. I remember going to school and routinely having air raid drills where we would all hide under our desks with our arms covering our heads because of the Cold War.
Mom's fondest childhood memories are of the times spent with Grandma Mac, Aunt Betty, Uncle Paul, in New Orleans and Aunt Agnes in Biloxi. I remember the stories she would tell of family gatherings on Sunday's in the backyard with huge tubs of boiled crab and shrimp. Now everyone she has grown up with is gone, but, she still has her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
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| Grandma Mac and Bert |
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| Bert and Laura Mae (1942) |
