Remembering Nancy Carolyn Webster (1941-2013)

First of all, a huge, huge "thank you" to each of you who left a comment or e-mailed after hearing about my mom's passing last week. In June she was diagnosed with uterine cancer, which we had originally been told was very treatable and not that terrible a diagnosis. Hers, alas, ended up being a very rare, very aggressive form of the cancer that was far more complex than we ever imagined. As my sister put it, "It's unbelievable how she's going to be missed." Yes! So today I am choosing not to dwell on the pain and sorrow of the past few months but rather to reminisce about some of the fun times we had together, of which there were many! It's funny to think about how many family get-togethers revolve around food, and in my family, that has often included teatime. Thank heaven for such memories — and thank heaven (I mean that quite literally) for the gift that was Nancy Carolyn Webster. I am so blessed that I got to be one of her daughters! The photo above was taken last Thanksgiving and shows, from left, my niece Cari, Mama, Aunt Jane and my niece Madison.

Here we all are on Mother's Day a few years ago. Like most mothers, mine was never happier than when she had all her family around her! Here are Aunt Jane, Cari, me, my mom, my sister Rhonda, Amelia, and kneeling, Madison.

Last November, we had a little birthday gathering for nephew Matthew, who was turning 4 (as evidenced by the cake he requested from my dad, chocolate with his age spelled out in M&M's). Last week after my dad, sister and I got back from planning the funeral, Matthew asked me to swing him on the hammock outside my parents' house. He said, "Angela, I'm never, ever gonna forget Nana and all that she did, not even when I'm old, and not even when I get married! Seriously! For real, I'm not!" (All said with the sweetest little smile imaginable.) My dad says he is counting on these kids to help him through his grief, and I can see why!

In April last year, Mama offered her "fancy" dining room as the scene for a birthday tea party for Cari. Here, as usual, she's in the background helping make sure everyone else is served.

Some years before that, there was a birthday party for Madison, and my mom is at right holding my niece Amelia.

Back during my single years, I lived in a little house on a road called Happy Valley Circle. People often asked me if it was indeed a happy place, and it was. Here, I had gotten a tiny new "parlor set" for the porch, and I obviously squeezed everyone around it for a tea party!

I'm not sure what the occasion was here, but my mom is pouring tea for her sister, my Aunt Jane, inside the house on Happy Valley Circle. Whatever the occasion was, they look like they're having a good time!

When my two oldest nieces were little, we all went to several tea rooms together. Here everyone is at the old Tea Leaves and Thyme tea room in Woodstock, Ga.

My mom absolutely loved spending time with Cari and Madison, and later Amelia and Matthew when they came along. When we were going through some of her papers last week, we came across some calendars she had, unbeknownst to us, been keeping ever since the kids were little, each month detailing what was going on in her grandchildren's lives. Neither my sister nor I knew about those, and the older girls, especially, enjoyed reading them, although the sweet comments were certainly a cause for many tears.

This photo was taken on a trip to the Victorian Rose Tea Room in Cedartown, Ga. (After seeing this washed-out old photo, I note with interest that my photos have gotten a lot better since the digital camera came along!)

A resolution I am making: I will henceforth date pictures! I have no idea when we all went to the Chocolate Biscuit Tea Room together, but oh well, here we are in Trussville, Ala.!

Later, after an afternoon of shopping, we stopped by a bakery for snacks, and this photo of Mama and Aunt Jane is the "Mama" I will best remember. My mother was a very witty person, and I remember her telling me about the time my old high school friend who runs the Senior Center back home asked her about joining. "I'll just be honest with you," Mama said, "I don't really like being around old people 'cause I don't like hearing about all their aches and pains." And she meant it!

Another tea room we visited together was the Grand Hotel Tea Room in Hogansville, Ga.

I'll never forget that Madison wanted something besides hot tea that day, and she got so mad when the server took her teacup away and replaced it with a glass or mug or something. Such righteous indignation from such a little girl! (Cari, on the other hand, always looks like she is in constant party mode and just happy to be there!)

And finally, longtime readers of this blog know where my mom and I liked to shop, so I thought it was fitting to end on this photo showing what the gals in my family always did after teatime. Thanks for indulging me in this little walk down memory lane!