Mother's Love

Rose McLaughlin, age 21, obviously
adores baby Terry Loel.

I am working now on redoing my Mother's old photo album that covers the years from 1936 to 1952. I've looked through this album many times throughout my life. Working on it, however, has me studying and thinking about the photos in a different way. The pages I worked on yesterday are from 1937 to 1939, the years my parents' first two children were born. These were the years when the country was struggling to find a way out of the Great Depression. Work was scarce and people took whatever they could find. We would consider ourselves extremely poverty-stricken if we had to go through the everyday circumstances of those days.

Mother with Terry and second daughter, Grace. Mother
has made matching dresses for the three of them, and has
fixed Terry's hair with a cute ribbon. I love the look of
love and pride on Mother's face.

Looking at the photos of my parents in that time, with those first two babies, you would not know how difficult survival was. They are not seeing these little ones as burdens. The adoring love and pride is clear on their faces. We have more pictures of Mother with the children, which is why I titled this Mother's Love, but our father was very good with little children.

It amazes me that in this time when so many people have so much more than my parents even imagined having, a lot of people seem to look upon children as burdensome nuisances. Some babies never get a chance at life, being disposed of like they were diseased tissue. Some are neglected; I cringe at what I hear some parents saying to their children as they drag overtired, over-stressed, crying children through the stores. Some expect the schools, the child-care facilities, or a relative to feed, teach, and raise their children for them. Some people are amazed that anyone would want more than one or two children.

Well, I got a little off topic there. I really only meant to talk about the treasure the old photos are, as they show the love and care my parents had for their babies!