I have a picture of my mother and her sister Ruby walking down the main street in Ft. Smith Arkansas that was taken in July or August of 1937.  They are dressed to the nines--they always were--and were laughing. 

Back then a camera was a luxury, so people who had a camera would stand on the corner and snap pictures of interesting people and sell them.  Mom and Ruby had been to the doctor's office and found out that my mom was pregnant with me.  They are both so happy in the picture.  Mom, because she was going to have a baby.  And Ruby, even though she desperately wanted to have a child, happy for my mother.

I keep the picture on an antique walnut entry chest in the living room and never tire of looking at it.  Mom and Ruby had each other.  I didn't have a sister for twenty one-years.  And even when Lisa came along, she was like one of my children.  Until the last ten years or so .  Now that she is in her late fifties, we are sisters.  It is really neat.  I can understand the love that Mom and Ruby had for each other.

Every Sunday, after church, my Mom and Dad, Ruby and Cleo, Gran and Pops, my brother Bill and Ann and I would eat dinner together.  And discuss how each of our parents taught the Sunday School lesson that day.  So every Sunday, I got the Bible lesson for the day at least twice.  Once at church and once at home over Sunday dinner.  Sometimes more--if there was a difference of opinion.  I grew up on fried chicken, gravy and Scripture.  And they all lived the life.  It didn't end on Sunday.  They were just good people.

Proverbs 22:6  "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."  Bill ended up as a missionary doctor to China.  Lisa founded a church and served as pianist.  Ann teaches piano and sings in her church.  Deuteronomy 11:19  "And you shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up."  That's what they did.