Devo #2
“Sheltered By the Mother Tree”
My maternal grandmother is one of the Mother Trees whose care I benefited from during the early years of my life. Mamma Weezie, as we called her, was a quiet but steadfast supporter. Her love wasn’t loud or showy, but it was reliable.
My childhood memories of Mamma Weezie are of simplicity. There wasn’t a lot of clutter in her home, because they didn’t own a lot of stuff. They didn’t have many events scheduled on their calendar, so she always seemed to have time to stop and talk to the people she cared about. And her home always felt peaceful, even though there was plenty of work being done—especially during the summer months when my grandparents were harvesting and preserving food from their gardens.
It’s funny how clearly I remember the littlest things about Mamma’s house. Like how much I enjoyed playing her collection of Red Rose figurines. Feeding pieces of stale bread to the fish in the stream behind the house. Requesting spaghetti for almost every meal, and loading it with the hot pepper sauce that Pappy claimed would put hair on our chests. And the little blue bedroom, which used to be my mom’s but became mine to use for sleepovers.
But what I remember most of all, is how it felt to be at Mamma’s. I didn’t feel compelled to put on any kind of performance. With her, I felt like I could just be.