Ruby Day

Today is Ruby Lee Spencer’s birthday. She’s my mother and I wanted to pay tribute to her on her special day.

Born on July 3, 1971, my mom Ruby Lee was a west coast girl who was born and raised in California. She had two older siblings, her brother Harry Jr. was the middle child and her sister Lana was the eldest of the three.

Their parents Harry and Erma Spencer were both in United States Army during the earliest parts of their childhoods, so they spent a lot of time in Europe when my grandparents were stationed in Germany during the Vietnam War. Ruby Lee came from a big family so she spent a lot of time with her cousins and they were all best friends to each other.

As a teenager Ruby really was a fun, yet mischievous kid. She told me and my sisters about a lot of the trouble she got into as a kid. Given how crazy she was when I was a kid I was not the least bit surprised at her rambunctious history. Part of Ruby’s energy that made her so lively is she was a free spirit. This led her to the US Navy when she reached adulthood. That’s where she met my dad and that’s where my journey with her began.

Ruby had 3 children: the oldest is Rudy, the middle child is yours truly and the youngest is Kindal. Our lives with her was iconic, but who was this mother of ours to us?

Describing who my mother was would literally take forever, I guess if I was to give you the simplified version I would say she was a colorful soul of adventure. Me and my sisters have always been an interesting mix of being both extroverted and introverted and without a doubt I can honestly say we get it from our mother Ruby. Our mom loved to be out and about. She loved to travel and she loved being fit, so she was always exercising. Another thing she always loved was taking us on the road somewhere for vacation.

Road-tripping was one of her greatest joys. She loved to drive for hours across the region, taking us to places like Georgia, Virginia, South Carolina and Tennessee, all while playing her favorite music as we would ride for hours enjoying the sites along the way. She would always put a lot of emphasis on the importance of us staying out about and having active outdoor lives which we always did have with a great sense of joy thanks to her. She was also always big on taking us to community events whether they were local or distant. While always on the move like this she was big on interacting with new people in these settings whether they were close friends or complete strangers and given her charismatic personality this made her a popular person.

At the same time, Ruby had a very healthy introverted side. She loved to stay in and read countless books all the time. Every month she would make me and Rudy bring home books that we had to read every night in front of the whole family. With this reading also came family time. She loved to have all of us eat dinner together at night while watching great movies together. This was like our own little inside family party where we would talk about life and reminisce on old times.

Perhaps the most memorable family time she would have with us was her own personal Bible study lessons. Ruby was big on faith and having a relationship with God so bible study was a regular basis thing for us. During these lessons she really taught us a lot about staying in faith during hard times and being cautious of the choices we make in the world around us. Her lessons on faith definitely explained why she was always so resourceful in life.

Whenever life became a challenge I always wondered why Ruby never folded under pressure, as I grew older I came to understand that she never fell to pieces due to her strong sense of faith. No matter how complicated life became Ruby always kept her head up and kept pressing forward. Ruby was a realtor by career, but when times got hard and she was struggling to make ends meet she took a second job working in retail at the mall where we lived. Eventually when the housing market crashed and times became the hardest she pursued a career as a truck driver after having worked part time at a truck stop, which proved to be a successful change in her life.

On July 26th, 2010, my mother Ruby died in a car accident and the world has become a different place everyday for the past 13 years since that fateful day. Though she was only in my life for 17 years my time with her felt like an eternity.

Every beautiful detail about her stays with me to this day. How much she loved to eat her favorite snack of sunflower seeds and Diet Pepsi while she read her books. How much she loved blasting the music of her favorite music artist on her stereo like Snoop Dogg, Lil Kim, OutKast, Beenie Man and Bob Marley loud enough for the entire neighborhood to hear. Her sense of humor was priceless and would keep you up at night with even the goofiest of one-liners like “guess what? chicken butt”. Most of all I will always remember the random smiles of love she would give me out of nowhere and how much she would always just say “I love you” to me at random. Through even the worst of times I know that she always meant those words.

Ruby’s life is truly one of the greatest presents the world could have ever been given. Even if she were still here today I honestly do not believe that there is a birthday gift I could give her that is strong enough to express how much I love her and what she means to me. Happy Heavenly birthday to my mother, Ruby Lee Spencer. Your life is truly the greatest gift ever.

~~Happy Heavenly birthday to my mama Ruby Lee, I love you always.