Leslie Stern Blackson
My mom leaves me with so many fond and funny memories and I’d like to share some of them with you.
“Mrs. Stern” was known amongst my friends as the “hip mom”. When I was a teenager, my friends loved to visit with my mom, razzing her about all kinds of things. She was quite opinionated, was always ready for a good argument and loved the attention. She knew how to have fun, too. She started the tradition of doing cartwheels with all the kids, and that has passed on through the generations in our family.
She was known for her sense of style, always dressing impeccably - even though due to her tiny size she often had to shop in the young teen department for her clothes and the children’s department for her shoes. You know the saying: “Like mother like daughter”? When we were planning for my wedding, she called to tell me about the beautiful dress she had purchased to wear to my wedding. I asked her to describe it, and low and behold - she had purchased the same dress I had chosen as my wedding dress! 3K miles away and we bought the same dress!
And Mom sure loved rock’n’roll. Her favorites included Jon Bon Jovi, John Cougar Melancamp, Billy Joel and most recently Adam Levine. She followed the gossip in People Magazine, and saved the photos of her favorite rock stars.
When my Dad passed away 5 years ago, Mom lived on her own for the first time in her life. She had a small apartment and was getting the hang of living alone, but that was cut short when she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She immediately underwent chemotherapy treatment, and soon after went to live with Marcy & Phil.
My Mom and Dad weren’t big travelers and Marcy wanted to fulfill Mom’s dreams to travel. During the 3 years that she lived with Marcy & Phil, Mom got to travel to Chautauqua, Grand Rapids, Nashville, Louisville, San Pedro, Seattle, Portland, Clearwater, Sarasota. She even went camping in Mohican to watch her great grandson-in-law run a 50 mile marathon.
I’m so grateful that Marcy could take Mom on these journeys, and even more grateful that I could join in on several of them. One of my favorites was the trip to Kentucky & Tennessee, where we travelled back in time to show Mom the towns where she first lived with Dad, and where her first child (my sister Jackie) was born. We had a great time visiting Fort Knox, where my Dad had been stationed during WWII. The rules there are strict regarding access - and no photos are allowed. We caused our own version of “trouble” and had even more fun teasing Mom and letting her think we were going to be arrested and had to escape.
Mom wasn’t much of a drinker, but she did love a Kahlua and Cream cocktail. She even held her own when we went on the Bourbon Tour in Kentucky and there she found the Buffalo Trace Bourbon Cream to be her favorite.
The famous Brown Hotel was a big part of Mom’s history during her first years of marriage, as was Churchill Downs - so glad we could take her back to see it all once again.
I moved to California nearly 40 years ago, and even though we managed to visit with each other regularly, I really got to know my mom these past few years, spending some of the most significant times together in December as I tried to comfort her through her final weeks. On Friday I was awakened by a bright light. I didn’t find out until morning that it was around that time that Mom had passed.
Mom, I am going to take that as a sign that you have arrived in Heaven, reunited with your Mom whom you’ve missed so deeply, and with your husband who shared 69 years with you here on earth. I’ll miss you Mom, say “Hi” to Rick for me.