Bethel Caudill Allen Tribute

I still remember how Mom would wake me up in the mornings with the smell of her breakfast cooking in the kitchen and the sounds of her and Dad conversing . I remember how she would fix homemade Biscuits and Gravy which were my favorite as a child. I use to beg her to make "baby biscuits" just for me and she always tried her best to make sure she made me some. I remember how she would put out huge washings on the clotheslines in her yard and would ask me to help her bring them back in off the line if it looked like it was going to rain. When i would get sick, she was the one who was there nursing me back to health along with Dad. She would sit up nights by my bed trying to console me so i would go to sleep. She always made time for me, time which i'm sure she really needed for herself.
Mom worked alongside of Dad in the garden and she use to can Green Beans, Corn, Apple Butter, Pickles, Sauerkraut, etc. I still remember watching her do those things and seeing her face so red from the heat of a long day over a stove canning. I also still remember how her Apple Butter between a hot biscuit tasted and how we use to beg her to make us Fried Apple pies at night sometimes and at a time when she really needed to just be able to sit down and relax , she would sacrifice her own energies to satisfy our appetites for her Fried Apple Pies and hot biscuits. I still can see her fixing Pitchers of Ice Water to take to Dad in the Garden where he had been plowing all day and where she had been helping him to plant rows of corn and beans. I would often watch them as they sat down on the ground, Dad all sweaty from plowing and Mom reaching him the pitcher of Ice water so he could quench his thirst.
Being the youngest of her 8 living children, and also the baby girl of the family, i think she spoiled me considerably and tried to protect me from everything she felt or thought might bring me harm. At the time, though, i use to view it as being too strict, but i have to admit, she had my best interest at heart every time.
Mom wasn't famous, but her love was and the memories of her unselfish caring Love remains in my heart. I may not have always understood her but i always understood she Loved me .
I still remember one of her prayers regarding her children...."God, please let me live to see my children grown"...and God did just that for her. He answered her prayer.
Mom's life in her later years was filled with much pain and suffering but even in the middle of all her suffering she worried more over her children than she did about herself. Mom is at rest now from all her suffering and pain and i often feel she is watching over all of us still yet . I miss her everyday and i look forward to the time when i'm reunited with her in Heaven...til then, her memory remains alive in my heart.