Momma's Story

I wrote this poem after my Mom passed away,
A lot of things were going through my head, didn't really understand why,
I finally realized, I need to write this down, its about Mom,
I have never written a poem before in my life, never even read any,
My parents were divorced in 1960,
My Mom was left to raise 6 children by herself,
Mom worked in a factory and cleaned homes for people in our small town,
Mom belonged to the Jehovah's Witnesses church,
That's the way we were all raised,

Mom never wanted the divorce, Dad met some local bar fly, and away he went,
Times were really hard back in the 60's,
Mom met a man and remarried, 15--18 years later,
moved to Florida, her husband was an alcoholic, mentally abusive, just not a nice person,

Mom had a couple of nervous breakdowns, hospitalized at times,
years later diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, cancer
moved her back to Ohio, step-father passed away
She survived 20yrs with this cancer, a lot of other illnesses too,
Some of the conversations with my Mom, she mentioned she still loved our Dad, just hated what he did to her and us kids,
We were very close to our Mom, she has always been there for us, I feel like the foundation I was standing on has been pulled away, just kind of falling, with no bottom to touch,

This poem is only a fraction of the ordeals that my Mother went through, It would take me years to write her complete story,

All I know is, she had faith in God,,was a spiritual woman, sweetist person that walked this earth and I miss her dearly,
Mom passe away 9 months after my father

Evelyn Stemen Klopfenstein July 21,1927 Aug 5, 2009
LOVE YOU MOMMA