(This is the original page that I wrote about the person who meant more to me that anyone ... my Mother. I didn't want to change anything about the page after she passed away, so I leave as it was originally in memory to her.)

I have enough special remembrances of my childhood and my Mom to do a complete website! But I'll just mention a few special things that are the closest to my heart.

A favorite memory for me is when Mom would make her fabulous Seafoam candy! It's the best thing in the world! My sisters, brothers and I would race into the kitchen and eat it with a spoon before it even had a chance to harden! But seafoam is cold-weather candy -- it just won't work in warm weather. So we'd wait patiently each year for late-October to arrive.

Then came Valentine's Day. When I'd come in from school, the smell of warm sugar cookies met me at the door. The kitchen table would be completely full of just-out-of-the-oven cookies. And Mom would be there putting her creamy-smooth pink frosting on each one.

The Four Noe Sisters: Frances, Kay, Ruth, Mom

I also have cherished memories of her playing paperdolls with me and Linda. "Susie, Sally & Mary Ann" became very life-like to Linda and me because Mom was so good at playing with us. She also helped us to draw, color and cut out new clothes that we designed ourselves for our paperdolls.

Among my favorite childhood memories was story-time, when Mom would tell us stories from her childhood. It's the basis for my love of anything to do with the Noe Family.

I would lay there in my bed and could just picture Papa & Mama Noe's farm, and "Noah's Ark" next to their house. I loved those stories! She brought to life for me the relatives who had long been dead when I was born. And even today, I feel like I actually KNEW people like my great-grandparents.

Then there was our reading time. She read to us all year long (The Little House books, in particular -- years before Michael Landon brought them to TV). But the books she read during the Christmas season were especially wonderful. Each night, we would gather around and Mom would read to us. Wonderful books and stories about Christmas -- The Birds Christmas Carol, Christmas is Always (by Dale Evans), The Lois Lenski Christmas Book, The Holly & the Ivy, The Lion in the Box and many, many more. Mom was instilling in each of us a love for books that has never left any of us. All five of her children loved to read. Those books were treasures to us, and they still are. Even with a home of my own now, I get those same books out each year and sit them next to my Christmas tree. It's a tradition that I'll never outgrow.

Another thing that Mom passed on to her children is a love for animals. We each have our own "special favorites". For her, it's dogs, snakes (I know it's weird, but she'd had a life-long love affair with them!), chickens and foxes. She has a collection of dog figurines which she has collected since she was a child. It's probably her most prized possession.

The highest honor awarded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky is that of Kentucky Colonel. Commissions for Kentucky Colonels are given by the Governor and the Secretary of State to individuals in recognition of noteworthy accomplishments and outstanding service to a community, state or the nation. I'm VERY proud to say that my Mom has been a Kentucky Colonel since the 1970s!

Mom with her children: Frankie, Jimmy, Gary, Linda & Me
(Taken shortly before my sister Frankie passed away)

Mom at her favorite time of the year, Christmas

I could go on and on in remembering all the wonderful times that my Mom gave to me. She was a stay-at-home Mom who was there every day when I ran in from school; she was a mother who listened and was interested in everything her children had to say. She encouraged our love of travel (our family has vacationed in 48 of the 50 states), classic books and good music (making sure I practiced those piano lessons!). And most of all, she was mother AND father to me and Linda (the only two still at home) after Daddy died in 1967.

But more important, she taught us the most special thing of all: That outside of God, love within a family is the most important thing on earth, and that families are FOREVER!

Jim (son), Linda (daughter), Anita (Jim's wife), Mom, Gary (son), Ellen (Gary's wife),
Steve (my husband) & me (Nancy, daughter)

Mom's last Christmas, 2007. She passed away two months later.

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The midi playing is Wind Beneath My Wings