These are my parents...
Milt and Corinne (Reed) Hambly...both deceased.
Milt and Corinne (Reed) Hambly...both deceased.
Dad
July 18, 1920 ~ December 18, 1994
Mother
February 26, 1920 ~ April 9, 1997
This was written April 9, 2010 which was the 13th anniversary of my mother's death. My mother is the source of my Native American ancestry (Wampanoag, Aquinna Band) through her father. She was a good person who always tried to look to other people's needs with sympathy and a helping hand.
As a youngster both my father and mother would take me and my friends anywhere even when other parents would not. One time I remember both of them with both of our cars filled with kids after a sports event at my school taking us to a restaurant to celebrate.
My house was always the place where the kids collected when I was a teen. In those early days many of the girls were afraid to try to dance and I remember my mom dancing with a boy named Eddie (quite a fox I recall) so that the girls could see how easy it was to dance and perhaps give it a try.
Christmas and Thanksgiving never passed without my parents giving food and turkeys to people in need. We were not wealthy by a long shot, but somehow they managed to do this.
When it got time to think about college my mother took on a job at the telephone office that was just across a field from our house. They still took the numbers by voice at that time. "Number please?" was how you got to make your call. In the end this job half paid for my college education. Mother had a home business as a seamstress and that paid for the other half. My dad's salary went to paying the family living expenses. My mom sewed for wealthy people who came to summer in our little Rhode Island ocean side town. She did alterations but she did so much more. My mother could look at a picture of a dress in a magazine, measure a person, and make the dress without a pattern. She could draw but not well...however her artistic skills were in full force when she cut something out. When I got married she designed and sewed my wedding dress and veil. It was beautiful.
After they were retired my parents took an old school bus and converted it into a camper with storage and hit the road for the flea markets. They loved it and she developed quite a gift for gab...which was surprising because up until that time she had always been kind of quiet and retiring. Those were the days of a new kind of blossoming for my mother, and she loved it. Time passed and health issues arose for both of my parents. They had to stop being nomads and they came to live in the little apartment in my house. The thing I admire most about both of my parents was that, as they lost a certain capacity, they adjusted graciously and embraced the abilities they still had. They made the most out of life with all its challenges at that time.
I started out to write about my mother, but it is hard to do that without also talking about my dad. They were in love until death did they part. It reminds me of the words to that old song...
February 26, 1920 ~ April 9, 1997
This was written April 9, 2010 which was the 13th anniversary of my mother's death. My mother is the source of my Native American ancestry (Wampanoag, Aquinna Band) through her father. She was a good person who always tried to look to other people's needs with sympathy and a helping hand.
As a youngster both my father and mother would take me and my friends anywhere even when other parents would not. One time I remember both of them with both of our cars filled with kids after a sports event at my school taking us to a restaurant to celebrate.
My house was always the place where the kids collected when I was a teen. In those early days many of the girls were afraid to try to dance and I remember my mom dancing with a boy named Eddie (quite a fox I recall) so that the girls could see how easy it was to dance and perhaps give it a try.
Christmas and Thanksgiving never passed without my parents giving food and turkeys to people in need. We were not wealthy by a long shot, but somehow they managed to do this.
When it got time to think about college my mother took on a job at the telephone office that was just across a field from our house. They still took the numbers by voice at that time. "Number please?" was how you got to make your call. In the end this job half paid for my college education. Mother had a home business as a seamstress and that paid for the other half. My dad's salary went to paying the family living expenses. My mom sewed for wealthy people who came to summer in our little Rhode Island ocean side town. She did alterations but she did so much more. My mother could look at a picture of a dress in a magazine, measure a person, and make the dress without a pattern. She could draw but not well...however her artistic skills were in full force when she cut something out. When I got married she designed and sewed my wedding dress and veil. It was beautiful.
After they were retired my parents took an old school bus and converted it into a camper with storage and hit the road for the flea markets. They loved it and she developed quite a gift for gab...which was surprising because up until that time she had always been kind of quiet and retiring. Those were the days of a new kind of blossoming for my mother, and she loved it. Time passed and health issues arose for both of my parents. They had to stop being nomads and they came to live in the little apartment in my house. The thing I admire most about both of my parents was that, as they lost a certain capacity, they adjusted graciously and embraced the abilities they still had. They made the most out of life with all its challenges at that time.
I started out to write about my mother, but it is hard to do that without also talking about my dad. They were in love until death did they part. It reminds me of the words to that old song...
"Love and marriage, love and marriage
Go together like a horse and carriage
This I tell you, brother,
You can't have one without the other!"
That was my parents in a nutshell.
Remembering them both with love and
gratitude...but today, especially
remembering my mother.
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