Goodbye UlaRae

I have a friend and neighbor of 28 years, whose mother died yesterday morning. I hope she does't mind if I mention her mother on this public forum. As you can see, her mom was a pretty lady, who passed her good genes down to her daughters, her granddaughters and her greatgranddaughters. She had 7 children, 32 grandchildren and 26 greatgrandchildren. For a woman in these modern times, it sometimes is overlooked what a grand contribution to society being a mother is. I look at her family, and I think to myself: here is a woman who made the world a better place.

As for me, the thing I will remember about UlaRae is that she provided me with chocolate in our lean years. Back in the 80's, She had connections all over the place, and at church she would hand out what she called a "hot sheet". The 'hot sheet' had all these deals for food in bulk that we could purchase through her, (this was before the Costco days). Oh, there were always things like a big ol' discounted bag of flour or sugar on there, but I really only looked at the 'hot sheet' because there was always some kind of chocolate on it. One month it was chocolate stars, one month it was M&M's, one month milk chocolate chips, and one month dark chocolate chips. Without exception, at Christmas there was dipping chocolate on the 'hot sheet'. Always chocolate in every mother's pantry, because of UlaRae. She did this task as a service. She never took a dime of profit for all the organizing, purchasing and delivering she did.

Today I found myself ironing her burial clothes as a favor to my friend, and as I was performing this task, I started thinking of UlaRae. I realized that UlaRae's mothering skills produced a lifelong friend for me, a life long friend who was also an excellent and wise mother for my children's playmates. The value of that in the life of my family is immeasurable. So Ula Rae, Thanks for making MY world a better place, and really and truly, thanks for all the chocolate. I ate it when life got hairy, and then things were better.