My Mom and the Family
Helen Weller was not only my mother; she was a good wife, citizen and friend to many. She was intelligent, caring, outspoken and hard working. Born in the early 20s, she was raised in a small town in northwestern New Jersey. She attended school and grew up there under the guidance of two very good people, my grandparents. Like my dad, she was raised during hard times in this country which continued well after she was grown and married.
She was the youngest of five children, but grew up carrying a lot of family responsibility. She met my father during the war through her brother who was buddies with my dad. After the war, my parents got married and eventually came back to California where my dad was from.
It was here in California that my parents began their life together and brought my siblings and me into the world. We were raised in the Santa Clara Valley of California, with my mom taking care of the home and my father working to support the family. My parents divorced when I was six, and from that point on, my mom became chief cook, bottle washer and financial support system.
She worked hard to raise us and harder to support us. There was little money, but we all had good lessons and mom even managed to take us to Santa Cruz many weekends during the summers. We all were taught respect, love, honesty and citizenship by this good woman.
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As a child, I was always into something; I was precocious, animated, intelligent and bold. These were very similar to the characteristics of my mom and were shared by my sister and brother. All through these years, I associated with my dad; he was my friend, my idol and my mentor, but my mom was the one to teach me all the things he had shared with her.
As I grew older, I joined the service, enlisted in the USAF and was serving in the late Vietnam era. I constantly visited my dad and my mom from this point on, but was out building my life, saving lives and experiencing life in a huge variety of ways. I lived through the eras of protest, free love, racial inequality, women’s rights and a few others. I saw the world go from the old black box televisions to what we have now.
I am very much like my dad, but credit my mom for giving me the direction and sense to be that way. She was wise and always there for me all through her life and in the later years, the roles reversed and I was there with and for her.
Mom passed away early in the morning, March 1st. 2010 in Santa Cruz, CA. with my sister, brother and I all there. I held her hand for the last hours and wetted her lips with drops of water. She could not see or talk, but knew we were there and squeezed my hand when I would talk to her.
Mom was not the church going type, but did believe in a god and heaven of some type. In the last minutes of her life, she squeezed my hand, then lifted it up, waved goodbye, pointed toward heaven and was gone.
I love you mom, I hold you in my heart and hear you talking to me at times.
