More Than All Right
A Daughter’s “Momoir”
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From "Mom and Dad" Handling Dad must have been almost a full time job in itself for Mom. Sometimes even her love and humor couldn’t penetrate the cloud of dejection and gloom in which he could wrap himself in the conviction that life was a raw deal. When he was in this mood, we kids tiptoed around him as if through a minefield, lest we trigger an explosion. An outburst from Dad, when at full throttle, was not a pretty sight. Those were the times we stayed clear of the battlefield and left him to her, if we could. Mom was not a temperamental woman, and her basic approach to life was one of cheerful practicality, most of the time. But when Dad had pushed her button just a little too hard or often, she could give as good as she got. There was nothing timid about her, and though he sometimes could drive her to tears of frustration, she was never cowed by him. . .But Mom never gave up on him, and toward the end of his life when she had to do almost everything for him, one day he broke from his often irritable resignation to say, “I don’t know what I would have done without you.” From "Mom and Dad" One day, when Mom tugged open the drawer and found eight pounds of dark-haired Persian cat lying on top of her best underwear, the you-know-what hit the fan as Mom’s pent up frustration found a vent! I caught the spray full on for not preventing my “damned cat” from getting in her things. Mom almost never used profanity, but when she did, it was an infallible sign that the amber alert had just been elevated to red and it was time to head for the bomb shelters! From "Mothers and Daughters" But along with my embryonic sense of honesty about the relationship between males and females, was the subliminal realization that while Mom trained me to inhabit her inherited world, she, herself, was modeling another one. Her remarkable ability and eagerness to lead, her pride in being an exceptional worker, even her manner of speaking and the way she walked proclaimed not a submissive, scripted woman, but one who knew what she was worth. I saw, or rather sensed, all this without really understanding it until many years later. Mom, for all that she rose to the top like the cream in a bottle of milk, never defied the world of her origins. She somehow managed to live within its confining boundaries while hewing her own path, but without submitting completely to either world.
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About the Book
Long before “Steel Magnolias” became a hit movie, Holly Ridge, North Carolina had produced its own vigorous southern flower, Lena Shepard Morris Bird. In this memoir of her mother, author Patricia A. Bird narrates how Lena inherited all the best of her traditional world while developing the gifts that allowed her to unconsciously model a newer one.
Through nineteen vignettes, Lena’s story shows how she applied her motto, “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right,” in her home as mother of three and wife of fifty-four years, at her church, and in her workplace. Raised in this environment, Patricia Bird became one of the earliest women Episcopal priests in the United States.
From childhood on, Rev. Bird shares the memorable recollections of her mother’s ninety-three years that helped shape her growth. More than All Right portrays Lena as a woman of great energy, great humor, and unconditional love. It presents an evocative portrait of family life in the forties and fifties.
About the Author
Patricia A . Bird wrote this “momoir” following her mother’s death in 2010 as a way of processing the rush of memories. She is a retired Episcopal priest and professional church musician, Bird lives in southern Delaware and volunteers with Meals on Wheels and Habitat for Humanity.