I would like to reflect back on the pricelss memories that I have of my precious mother Louise! I remember how much I absolutely adored my mom. It's amazing that I can remember so much about her because I was only about 9 1/2 years old when she died of cancer at the young age of 26. Bobby was too little to remember awhole lot about her as he was only 8 when we lost her. I do remember going to the funeral home to view her body. I remember my dad telling us that when we saw her that she wouldn't be able to talk to us. I didn't believe him because after all that was my mom and how was it possible that she wouldn't talk to us? I remember going to the funeral home with Grandma Phillips & Aunt Norma. I went up to her casket to see her and I remember she looked so Beautiful in the gorgeous red dress that Uncle Sonny had bought for her and wanted to see her in it when he came back home from California, but instead he ended up seeing her in it at her funeral. My mom was a very pretty, tiny woman. Very loving and I remember I couldn't get enough of her. I wanted to be with her all the time when I was a kid. I was a very happy little girl growing up having my parents and when they died something died in me too. I have a wonderful life with an amazing husband [John] and 3 children that I love more then life itself, but when you lose the people who brought you into this world at such a young age it shatters your very soul. It's hard to even explain, but all I know is that it destroyed mine and Bobby's childhood. To this day Bobby hasn't gotten over losing mom & dad. I don't think you ever get passed that pain, but you learn to go on with life and accept it as best you can. I remember that we lived with Grandma Phillips in Burnside IL. when mom died. I remember her being in alot of pain and Grandma Phillips & dad taking care of her. In fact, Grandma told me that dad took some time away from work so he could be with her before she died. I remember that 2 weeks before she died she had gone to stay with her sister Marian Shaner [my Aunt Marian & Uncle Wendell] because us kid's were getting on her nerves and the house was kind of cold with it being winter and they only a had an old coal stove in the dining room to heat the whole house. Mom came home from Aunt Marian's and shortly afterwards I woke up and saw my dad with mom up in his arms carrying her through the dining room past me where I was sitting by the coal stove to keep warm. As I looked up I saw the worse thing any child could see. My mom was wearing a real heavy black coat and she was leaning her head on dad's chest. She was hemoraging really bad and that was the last time that I ever saw my mother alive. No good-bye or anything. Grandma took me & Bobby to the Carthage hospital to see her but they told us to come back tomorrow because she was sleeping. The truth was that she had just died. Bobby took off and found her room and peeked inside the door as they were pulling the sheets up over her. I remember seeing my dad, and 3 of my mom's sister's with him walk past the waiting area. Grandma took us back to her house there in Burnside and when Dad got home he told us that she had died. He went somewhere and Bobby & I were crying and Grandpa Phillips was drinking and yelling at us and telling us to shut up etc. Grandma really let him have it! She told him to be quiet that us little kid's had just lost our mother. Grandma told me later on in life when we'd talk about dad that he wanted her to tell us that mom had died, but she told him it was his place to tell us...not hers. I remember at mom's funeral Bobby was sitting between me & dad. I saw dad crying and then Bobby so I cried too. All I can say is that we got a rude awakening early on in life what pain really felt like as kid's. I would also like to say that my Grandma Phillips loved my mom and got along great with her. Grandma used to laugh and tell me that someone said to my dad that his wife and mother sure did get along well, and dad's remark was "TOO DAMNED WELL"! Ha!Ha! Grandma had her hands full with my Grandpa Waldo drinking and she worked hard all the time trying to take care of all of us, but she still did what she could for my mom when she was so sick and dying. Grandma was so good to our whole family. She was there as best she could be for me & Bobby and our family's up until she passed away March 6, 2004. I did what I could for my Grandma at the nursing home because of everything she did for our family, and continued to do even after my parents both passed away. Grandma had a "HEART OF GOLD". She did for everybody in the whole family! Bobby took our mom's death so hard that he didn't go with me and Aunt Bonnie to dad's funeral. When Bobby was young and lived with Grandma he wrote our mom a heart breaking note and put it on her grave and it about made Grandma cry. Nobody knows what Bobby & I went through with losing both of our parents in such a short time. Dad was killed only 2 1/2 years later after losing mom. I remember my mom collected real old pennies. She would also collect green stamps and she got me a real neat metal doll house with her stamps before she died. She bought "BREEZE" laundry detergent just so she could get the towel's that were inside the box! Ha!Ha! I remember she loved to put puzzles together. When we'd go to her mom's for a family get together my dad always had trouble getting mom to leave. I remember my Grandma Mellinger telling me that my dad was ready to leave and mom said "LET ME PUT JUST ONE MORE PIECE OF THIS PUZZLE IN". She loved her coffee & pepsi. She would liked her pepsi and a cigarette for breakfast. She also loved to fry corn on the cob and have it for breakfast. She would sip on a whole bottle of pop taking her the entire day to drink it because she was such a slow drinker. My daughter [her granddaughter ]Jeannie used to be like that too. I told Jeannie that she inherited that trait from her Grandma Louise. Jeannie isn't like that now, but she used to be when she was much younger. I remember coming home from school there in Burnside and mom would have popcorn popped and the bowl was on top of the refrigerator. When we lived outside of Stronghurst IL. we had just moved into an old house there along the highway and mom let me stay up one night. She asked me if I wanted to watch some cute boy's on T.V. with her and of course I said "YES" because I was into boy's real early! Ha!Ha! So, we watched "OZZIE & HARRIETT NELSON". Needless to say I fell in love with Rick Nelson that night! Ha!Ha! If Grandpa Phillips miss treated us kid's my mom would let him have it. She nor dad either one put up with anybody being mean to me & Bobby. Grandma didn't either. I remember sitting on the porch at the old house outside of Stronghurst and telling my mom that I wouldn't trade her for all the money in the world! I wanted a baby sister or brother real bad and I told mom to order one from the catalog! Ha!Ha! She said, we'll see. I remember how much my mom loved Rose's 4 kid's...Ed, John, Judy, and Janet. With Aunt Rose being married to her brother Sonny it made us kid's double cousin's. My mom was silly over those kid's and I remember I'd get so darned jealous when she'd make over the girl's especially! Ha!Ha! After all, that was my mom...not their's! Ha!Ha! One time I remember she was making over Janet and I decided I'd had enough of it so I started hoofing it down the road. I was going to run away. I remember the further I'd get down the road I'd keep looking back towards the house to see if mom was going to come after me. When she didn't I decided to go back home! Ha!Ha! I remember mom asking me why I came back, and I fibbed and told her because I forgot my clothes! Ha!Ha! In the meantime her mom had stopped by to visit her and saw that my mom was so upset because I had taken off and she was scared that I'd get hit by a car and that my dad would have a fit. Grandma told her to not worry about it because I'd come back, and she was right...I did. I also remember the last Christmas before mom died she took me to the Carthage dime store and let me pick out a beautiful doll that walked and bought it for me. I loved that doll! She had on a real pretty blue dress and she had long pretty blonde hair. When I'd walk behind her with her arms up she'd take a step. I remember my mom telling me that if anything were to happen to her to always take care of Bobby. I remember how close mom was to all of her family. We went to her mom's all the time for special holiday's etc. She dearly loved her parents, brother's & sister's and of course all of her nieces & nephew's. She thought alot of her brother & sister-in-laws as well. Aunt Rose was my mom's "BEST FRIEND". My mom used to go to the timber with my dad & Uncle Don. When mom & Uncle Don would go to buy bologna etc. for their lunch Aunt Norma told me that people thought that my mom & Uncle Don were brother and sister because they were such good friends. Aunt Norma & I used to sit and talk about my mom & dad quite often. She would remember foods that my mom enjoyed etc. My dad's family loved mom alot. I remember going to Aunt Norma's & Uncle Don's when they lived out by the college there in Carthage and Bobby & I would pull Rex, Donnie, & Wilma around in their wagon. One time when we were there I remember my mom had to be taken to the hospital because she started to hemorage. I remember when my mom was in the Ft. Madison hospital there towards the last few months of her life she had us hold out our hands and she gave us some candy. I can STILL feel her warm hand holding mine. It's something I've never forgotten. Right before she died I remember Uncle Jake bought mom a real pretty towel set for us kid's to give to her as a gift. I don't know if Jake remembers doing that or not, but I sure do. I remember living above the pool hall across the street from Grandma & Grandpa in Burnside. Mom had the place fixed up real cute. I remember the blue dishes we used to eat off of. I remember when Grandma ran the switch office there in Burnside during the 60's she lived at the switch office and let us have her other house there across the street from the grocery store that Fred Hull ran until Joe Mc Bride bought it. I slept with mom & dad alot and had a problem with peeing the bed, especially if it got cold in the room at night and the little fuel stove didn't keep us very warm. Dad would hold me up in the air while mom took my wet clothes off of me and then she'd put dry one's back on me and shove me right back into bed between them! Ha!Ha! The closest thing to heaven for me was the love and security that I felt as a child being with my parents. I remember one time it was really cold and snowy out and mom had Bobby all wrapped up in a nice warm blanket and carried him over her shoulder to the switch office and dad had me all bundled up good tossed across his shoulder too and I can remember watching dad's feet as he walked leaving footprints in the deep snow. That is a Treasured memory to me. My mom's family, me & Bobby will always miss her. There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about my parents and I still have day's where I get very emotional. It was especially hard for me when Jeannie was born. I remember we lived in Burlington on plane st. by K-mart and I went through a very difficult time grieving for my mom & dad both. Wishing they could see their AWESOME GRANDKID'S. It was hard for me to take the kid's to have their picture's taken when they were little because I'd see girl's with their mother's getting their kid's picture's taken and it hurt beyond words that me nor my kid's had that. Bobby's kid's have always had Grandparents which Iam glad. But, nobody knows what it's like to see your kid's grown up with no Grandparents at all. John's mom Hazel died before I met John, and his dad died when Jay was about 4 1/2 years old and Jerry was just 8 months old a small baby. I would like to say that a very special woman...Lucille Luttrell came to the door when we lived at Grandma's there in Burnside while mom was sick and offered to take me & Bobby home with her because she had heard mom was sick and that we were a handful on our mom under the circumstances. So, mom called me to the door as she stood there talking to Lucille and asked me if we'd like to go home with Lucille. Lucille asked us if we'd like to go home with her and take a bath in her bath tub etc. and of course we were ready to go! Ha!Ha! Mom didn't care as long as we wanted to go. When we got to Lucille's farm outside of Burnside and she walked us inside her front door there sat her husband Aaron smoking a pipe. The second that he saw us kid's he goes, " WELL, HELLO THERE"! To make a long story short Lucille & Aaron played a huge roll in taking us under their wings and taking care of us. We grew to love them and since they didn't have any children of their own we became the kid's they never had. They were wonderful to us in every way! Lucille used to read to us from the bible and they both took such an interest in us. Grandma thought the world of Lucille and cried at her funeral remembering how good she & Aaron were to me & Bobby when we needed them and had so much against us back then as little kid's. Lucille took us to church and was my Sunday school teacher there for awhile. When she took us to bible school during the summer she was also my bible school teacher. They were silly over me & Bobby and our family's. Bobby & I were treated like a part of the family and Lucille left us in her will when she passed away. I believe that things happen for a reason, and that God sent Lucille to help look after us. It sure helped Grandma out alot. Grandma used to take us out there all the time so we could spend time with Lucille & Aaron on their farm. Bobby & Aaron used to go fishing together all the time, and he also took him on the tractor when he farmed. Lucille would give me baths and do my hair for me. They were gifts that heaven sent that's for sure. We loved them very much. My boy's thought of Lucille & Aaron as their Grandparents just as they did Grandma Phillips and Grandma Mellinger. Jeannie was born after Aaron passed away so she didn't get to know him. Aaron told me that I had 2 awfully nice little boy's and he said now all I needed was a little girl. Lucille used to say that he sure would have thought alot of Jeannie. Jeannie adored Lucille! She still refers to her as "GRANDMA LUCILLE"! When Lucille went to Sun Set homes in Quincy IL. we used to go see her. She & Aaron were "THE BEST"! We were so lucky to have had them in our lives. Without them & Grandma I don't know what we would have done when mom took sick etc. Bobby & I went to visit our mom's sister Bonnie for a few day's when dad got killed. They didn't think they could have any kid's so she & her husband Terry asked us if we'd like to live with them so we did. Bonnie did the best she possibly could for us. but life there wasn't good because of Terry. He was very mean to us for no good reason. After we left there we went back to Carthage to live with our Grandma & Grandpa Phillips. I only lived with them until our son Jay was born and 12 day's later his dad & I were married and moved to Burlington to start our lives together. We re-located 24 years ago to the Quad cities because of John's working on the river. He's a Captain on the Bernard G. and he's been working on the river since Jerry was only 2 years old. John was hurt in Cordova IL. dredging sand about 19-20 years ago and we bought our house in Hickory Hills Blue Grass where we plan to stay for the rest of our lives. We've been married for 36 years. Mom & Dad both would be very proud of me & Bobby both. You can bet your boots their watching over us and our family's all the time! My mom would be very grateful to her sister Bonnie for taking us in the way she did for being as young as she was. Bobby & I both appreciate everything good that our Aunt Bonnie did for us. We love her alot. I don't get to see her very often since she moved away years ago to the Des Moines area after she got re-married, but I miss her and love her dearly.