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As a child, my mother envied others: those growing up with a stable father, whose moms didn’t pawn jewelry to buy their daughters dresses or whose families could afford to send them to college to make lifelong friends.
I watched her self-educate and evolve in her 50s, reading voluminous books and discovering Jesus and the Bible, which she poured over each night. She prayed unceasingly, eventually finding peace, love, grace and gratitude.
Her Lenbrook neighbors envy her now, surrounded as she is often and will be Saturday by a large, healthy, intact and forever grateful family, on her 99th birthday.