Two years of missing her, and longing to hear her voice.
Two years of being grateful for the times we shared and the memories we made.
Two years of wishing those times hadn't passed so quickly.
Two years of remembering the scrapes she got herself into and how she got out of them.
At her funeral we had a time of sharing, so you may have heard some of these stories there. Some have followed her through life like a bad dream. Some of these things her daughters can't believe she actually pulled off. As I have been going through her pictures and memorabilia, it is proving something I have always known, she was a very unique lady.
Mom was a town girl, married to a farm boy, who decided he liked trucking a whole lot better than farming. She loved challenges, so while Dad was trucking she taught herself to be the carpenter, plumber, electrician, vet, milkmaid, gardener, and much, much more. If she couldn't fix it, it wasn't broke!
She was always prepared
for any circumstance and nothing seemed to scare her.
One day she was working in
her garden, which was next to a patch of woods. Three neighbor boys
were in the woods looking for black snakes. They came out carrying a
big black snake, walked up to the garden and asked,” Mrs Peffer, do
you have a yard stick” Mom said, “Not here with me, but I know if
I stretch my arm out, the distance from the end of my nose to the tip of my finger is a
yard.” They said, “Could you
stand like that, please?” "Make sure you keep hold of that snake," was her reply. She stood there with her arm outstretched as they held their snake up to her nose. It measured over a yard long!
She loved to cook and was
a lover of hospitality. Growing up; I thought our house was a hotel.
We had lots of overnight visitors and she loved entertaining them. If
there were special meetings at church, she invited everybody back to
our place for dinner and she always had plenty of food. She also loved to take meals to any grieving family in the neighborhood. One particular time a neighbor lady passed away so she made a pan of lasagna for the family. She had one of her grandchildren help her carry the food to the car. Somehow, the pan of lasagna found itself upside down in the driveway. Mom went for the scoop shovel and very carefully got it turned back over. She took off the tin foil, picked out the few stones that had imbedded themselves and then placed fresh tin foil over it. She deemed it safe to eat and continued on to the neighbors. Till she got there, she was feeling pretty guilty about what she had done so she told them the whole sorry story. Whether they ate the lasagna or not, we will never know.
Our Mother will probably
be remembered most for her unique sense of humor. She was a lady who
saw humor in almost every situation she was in.
One of those situations
that we all remember was centered around our own dinner table. Our
table was graced by a set of old, battered, painted, tumblers, and a
rounded aluminum pitcher to match. Over the years the tumblers had
acquired slightly rounded bottoms that caused water spills at every
meal. Dad had perfected the sudden push back from the table to save
himself from a lapful of water. He also had a special, harmless, but
vicious looking frown for the unfortunate child that had once again
thoughtlessly disrupted the family dinner.
It was a warm afternoon
and the family had gathered once again for a family meal. A tumbler
was knocked over and the water flowed toward Dad. With lightening
reflexes he sent his chair flying backwards with a frown and a few
words of disgust. Mom, who had witnessed this scene countless
times before had a few words of her own to direct at Dad, whom she
felt was being needlessly dramatic. A few fiery words were exchanged
between them about the harmlessness of getting wet, when Mother, to
illustrate her point, grabbed the aluminum pitcher, which was full,
and dumped it over her own head. We sat in stunned silence as she
sat there dripping wet. Then she and Dad started to laugh.
Mom never became computer
savvy but she did learn to email. Anytime she had an experience that
involved her, she would send all of us an email with a play by play
account. This instance was one that happened in 2007 when she was so
excited about getting a handicap ramp. Scott had difficulty getting
into her house with his wheelchair and she was so pleased that he now
had complete access. This is in her own words:
“All
day off and on, I have walked in and out of my new handicap entrance.
It is just wonderful and I couldn’t wait for Scott to come and try
it. I knew how I wanted him to approach it. Come in through the
yard where I plan to have a car port which will be in close proximity
with the concrete ramp to the front door. “Call me when you are
coming so I can show you where I want you to go”. I heard the
beeper on my phone go off and to my disappointment he had parked in
front of the walk in the drive way. “No No” I thought, and
quickly opened the front door, with my mouth open to protest, and lo
and behold my toe caught on the sill of the door and I forgot that
the concrete was flush with the doorway and it was like someone had
me by the seat of the pants and scruff of the neck and pitched me out
the door where my feet barely touched the concrete, propelled
headlong to the south down the new little embankment against the
raised concrete of the “handicap porch”, down down until my
shoulder dug into the yard and my head hit like a bullet against the
solid turf. Mouth still open, I realized I was laughing like a
lunatic while trying to say “I fell out my handicap entrance!!!”
between peels of laughter and awareness that this is not what it is
supposed to be for. I actually howlled with laughter until I realize
that my head ached and my shoulder hurt and I could barely get up.
Scott looked angry and was chewing me out for falling out the door.
Would you believe, I still could not get over the funniness of the
irony of the whole ridiculous scene. I plan to be very stiff and
sore in the morning and will never forget the beauty of this crazy
quilt picture. I hope my chiropracter doesn’t take all the fun out
of this, love mom
She fell several more times over the years but she always seemed to come through with all her bones intact. One time she was with my sister Laura in the Denver airport. As she stepped on the escalator going up, she fell backwards which put her feet going up first. Laura got behind her and tried to lift her but Mom just couldn't make anything move until Laura yelled, " MOM it will eat your clothes at the TOP." That was like an adrenaline rush. Bending forward she was able to grasp the railing and pull herself up. At home several years later she had a near repeat performance except that the steps were stationary, and she was the one moving DOWN not UP! She was walking into her kitchen from the deck. The steps down off the deck are right beside her kitchen door. For some reason she lost her balance and fell backwards towards the steps, she literally bounced her way down , she described it as a "wash rubber sliding board". She came to a stop close to the bottom of the stairs with her feet still facing upwards. Diane's daughter was in the living room and heard her calling. She was sore for a few days but she didn't have any lasting affects.
The last major fall she had she did quite a number on her face, this story is also in her own words. The title of her email was,
"Read and Weep, or Laugh, but it ain't funny!
"You won't believe this, or will you? I was feeding the cats on my way to the dentist to get my new tooth. Looking forward to better looks. Pride goeth before a fall. As I filled one cat dish slightly under the swing, I rose up to go around the swing to find another dish. On the way, my foot caught on the foot of the swing which put me in a forward dive. Trying not to fall, I was picking up momentum, and finally lost the battle. I plowed concrete with my nose and glasses. My face was literally smanhed to the concrete. I can't seem to figure out how I slid across the concrete plus smashed into it. I went into the house spraying blood in the wake. I grabbed paper towels and sat in the car wondering how I was going to get my tooth fixed at the dentist and keep from bleeding to death. On the way, I regained my senses and knew I had to go to the hospital instead of the dentist. It was a three hr. ordeal in the hospital E.R. and the Doc. assistant was super at reading people and seeing straight through me. Margie came and stayed till I was discharged. My nose was found to not be broken, but blood vessels inside my nose are the main problem at this point. My looks are indescribable. People just stare at me even with me holding gauze over my mouth and part of my nose to catch the blood seepage and sinus fluid. I look like I fell into a meat grinder. But wait , there is more. When we got home my pocketbook was on the carport wearing tire tracks. Guess what! I need another cell phone now, and my two sets of partials that I was taking for the dentist to use to fit my new tooth, don't fit any more. That's right, BENT! I need a new lens in my glasses, its almost white with scars. All I can say is I need to stay on my diet, the more weight behind a fall the worse it is ~ MOM
We really didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I think we did a little of both. These stories have become legends. I was going to stop with this, but there is one more that is begging to be told.
Friends, I have put in a miserable 3 days. On Friday Eve, Katie Eames was here on an errand and when we walked into the kitchen, I spied my lower partial lying on the table. OF ALL THINGS. I felt a wave of shame and grabbed them quick but Katie saw me! I had to ask her later if she saw which way I went with those teeth. She snickered and said it didn't bother her, as I was trying to get them out of sight. I had to admit to her, by phone, that I have not been able to find them since. She told me which way she thought I had gone, carrying them to spirit them out of sight. She insisted it was no shame to her at all. She has called me several times to see if I had found them yet. NO, was the answer! I had prayed every day and looked through every drawer, shelf, container, (of possibility), the garbage can, and all the waste cans...twice!! Most places continuous looking. This evening, Monday, I decided to make a salad, and then remembered TEETH would really come in handy! I mixed a variety of cut veggies that I had leftover from a veggie pizza. Then I went to the refrig for the lettuce. I know you know what I am going to tell you. I lifted the lettuce out of the crisper drawer and low and behold there was my partial. I shrieked; I laughed and prayed, "Thank You Lord! I will add this to the multitude of mysteries that continue to pile up in my old age. This one just about tops all. ~ Mom p.s. I didn't purposely put them there. I don't know how they got there!!
Two years of missing her emails!!
