My Mother's Only Child 3. Smarty Pants

I can be a lot. I know this very well but a lot was expected of me. My mom and her siblings, especially her older brother Robert (who is now in Heaven with her), always discussed how she was one of the smartest kids in their school growing up. I laughed at the stories my uncle would tell about how my mom was so smart that she was able to skip grades and be in class with him. He joked about how she would have to stand on the chair to see over the class as a teacher's assistant (my mom was short and so am I). She was always at the top of her class and therefore good grades was expected of me. However, as my mom would say, I waited to college to actually enjoy school and value my education. Many many degrees later, she was right. On her birthday, April 16th, I will have a bowl of her favorite ice cream and indulge in one of her favorite meals. I will also celebrate the years that she was alive, remember the goals that she had and the sacrifices that she made for me. After all, as my uncle Robert would say, I am Alma Jean Jr.

I am My Mother's Only Child.

Sherri M. Littleton

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How I am dealing with my Mother's Death- one year and a half later.

Mother's Day has gone by and it was just as painful as it was last year, during the beginning stages of the pandemic. It just sucked. There is no sugar coating about it. Not having my mother, my protector and my best friend here with me is hard but having the constant reminders of that day with ads in the stores and online made it worse. Then I realized there are so many people that are probably feeling this way but feel bad saying it out loud. Well, I don't. Losing my rock, motivator and loving protector will probably never get better. But, I realized that I no longer have to put on a facade for others to prevent from bringing them down. That is not my job or anyone's job that lost their mother to make other's feel comfortable. So, I started this blog for those of us in this particularly 'special club' that nobody wants to be in but we are here. Now the question is how do we survive being members? -Sherri M. Littleton 5/17/2021

My Mother's Only Child. Cornbread Dressing

For the first time since my mother's death 4 years ago, I made a decision to cook at home and not participate in a Friendsgiving this year. I have some of the loveliest people in my inner circle that have truly been there for me, but I needed to cook and recreate my mother's dishes. So that is what I did. I made a complete Thanksgiving dinner, like I've done many times before, but just for me. Although that may seem lonely for some, I delighted in prepping the same way my mother would for the holidays. I got up early in the morning, started on the pie and chopped the veggies, marinated the meat and made the sides. I was humming the entire time and loved it. But something different was that I added a bit of my grandmother's recipe into the dressing. I used celery, not celery salt but actually celery. Anyone that knows me understands how much I usually cannot stand the taste of celery. It was to the point that my mother stopped using it all together. But this year,

My Mother's Only Child. Macaroni and Cheese

As an only child, my mother would often make meals from scratch to suit both of our taste. However, as a kid, I was a picky eater. It was really difficult for me to try new things because I liked certain dishes more than others and wouldn't agree to anything else. As most kids, I loved mac n cheese. But specifically, I loved my mom's baked mac n cheese, to the point I wouldn't dare eat anyone else's. I remember as a kid, everyone at our Baptist church and my mom's government job requested my mom's baked mac n cheese for potluck dinners. I refused to eat my friends' mothers box mac n cheese and only would trust a few family members recipes including my grandma and moms' sisters to also make it right. It even got to a point where my father remarried and tried to guilt me into saying his new wife mac n cheese was better than my mother's dish. I refused because even though I was a kid I knew I wasn't going to lie, especially about cooking.

SherriMLittleton

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