My Mom's Birthday Was July 3rd

My mother was born Iona Renae Fairbanks and lived most of her life as Ione Elizabeth Estey, born 7-3-1934, deceased 9-25-2009. It is my pleasure to write a few of the memories my brothers and I shared this week.

My mother had us picking every kind of berry in the countryside. And she would pay us. She would say, "When you have a big family, you have to pick what you can eat, put up preserves, and later when we had a freezer, it was and freeze some for the winter.

She would tell the story of being one of ten children, skinny, and how she had scurvy as a child. She said she was malnourished even though her family always had a milking cow and her dad worked hard to feed the family.

When picking berries one day in the bright sunlight, she told us about how nanaboozhoo was walking in the woods and a small black critter came out of the brush and scared nanaboozhoo.

Just that quick he tapped him on the top of the head and the back of the tail and the little fellow got a white stripe down his back and an odor like no other. She then said, it was important for us to not scare nanaboozhoo by being too quiet when we are in the woods.

When we got home my mom's oldest sister was at our house and we told her the story. My aunt said, "Your mom made up that story. She was telling you that so you would make more noise to keep the bear away from her blueberry spot.

Then she told us how our mother was afraid of bear but even then she would fight off a bear to keep her berries. To this day I can outpick anyone when berry picking and I will say, "I'm a picker from way back, even though I hardly ever go picking berries anymore.

Years later, when my mother was in her 60s I talked her into taking a girls trip into the BWCA, or boundary waters canoe area. She decided to go but said again that she was not interested in seeing any bear. At the time we would see them every year.

Before we went I made sure there were no reported bear sightings where we were going. As we portaged out after a few days of camping and fun, I heard her mumbling behind me about how she could have stayed home to see a chipmunk.

Much later I found out me and my siblings are bear clan.

Our mother was a great cook and a famous baker in our family of relatives. And everyone knew that there would be baked goods if they stopped by Ione's house. Mom always fed people and they knew to expect that.

I learned that food was a reward and would help me to feel better if hurt. Maybe even that food is love. That caused me a few problems in life.

One day when I was a young girl of eleven, my aunt called and said, "Tell your mother the wild roses are in bloom." I repeated the message and my mother said, Tell your auntie we will take one." That was the end of the conversation.

I learned a few days later that meant that we would soon have venison. Then we would can an entire deer. Everyone in my house loved canned venison the most. My mother made the very best gravy and putting that over her mashed potatoes was what is referred to as comfort food.

My daughter and I have canned up many deer and my daughters family love the canned venison as my daughter is both a cook and baker like my mom.

Mom would talk about how poor they were when children. She said, she used to get one new pair of shoes a year for school. She said she would sleep with her shoes, as she didn't want anything to happen to them. She would buy a new pair of shoes for every event when we were growing up.

As a kid and an adult, I have always had too many shoes. My husband would tease me about being Emelda Marcos because of my shoes. Several years ago now I get rid of 3 pair for every pair I buy. My shoe collection is much more manageable now.

My mother was such a funny woman and I miss her dearly on her birthday and other times of the year.