My mom in 1955 with me and my sister. She was a true Texas girl. Born in 1931 during the Great Depression, she reached her teen years during WWII. She was well-acquainted with doing without. But here, in the mid-1950s, she must have felt she was blessed with everything: a new family, a man she loved dearly, and a house she owned in a new city away from everything. I can only imagine how good it must have felt after all the hardships she had known growing up.

That smile she shows never faded. Her whole face would smile. The years added wrinkles, but that smile was always the same.

She just recently passed away at age 85. But even on her worst days, she found something to smile about.

She was a remarkable woman. I am proud she was my mother. ~shared by @mgram55