In honor of mothers everywhere, Jennifer honors one particular mother of the early 20th century. What was the old-fashioned “secret” of her success in raising a world-famous, influential son? Tune in for some good, old-fashioned talk about vintage parenting.

If you prefer to read rather than listen, scroll down for the transcript.

Show notes:

Ain’t Misbehavin’ eBook FREE through May 4, 2019

The Modern Lady podcast

https://www.facebook.com/modernladypodcast/

The Sparkling Vintage Ladies’ Reading Circle

Jennifer’s fiction:

You’re the Cream in My Coffee

Ain’t Misbehavin’

Songbird and Other Stories

TRANSCRIPT FOR EPISODE 5:

Welcome to A Sparkling Vintage Life, where we talk about all things vintage and celebrate the grace and charm of an earlier era. I’m your host, Jennifer Leo, and it’s May 1, 2019, as I record this.

This is Episode number twelve of the podcast–an even dozen. As this upcoming Sunday is Mother’s Day, I wanted this episode to focus on those of you who are mothers and the tremendous impact you can and do have on the world.

But first, a little update. I’m very pleased to announce that the winner of the rose pin giveaway drawing is Jenny Manzke. Congratulations, Jenny, and thank you to all who entered the contest. I promise to run another giveaway soon, as they are fun and also give us a chance to get to know each other a little bit better.

Also, my novel AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ eBook edition is available for FREE this week on Amazon, through May 4, 2019. Ain’t Misbehavin’ is a clean, sweet romance set in 1920s Chicago. A glamorous jazz singer who falls in love with a conservative small-town businessman and mayhem ensues. If that sounds like your kind of story,  I encourage you to download it for FREE this week on Amazon. I’ll put a link in the show notes.

Last week there was no new episode as I was visiting my father in Illinois. He’s doing great. Thanks to those of you who asked about him. He’s 91 years old and still going strong.  As a postscript to the previous episode about travel and how much it’s changed over the years, my misgivings about plane travel were confirmed on this trip. My carry-on bag was searched thoroughly at O’Hare on the grounds of something suspicious. After my personal possessions were pawed through and put on display for the whole world to see, the culprit was found–it was a small coin purse filled with loose change that had apparently triggered the apparatus for detecting metal. So be on alert, ladies. Empty those coin purses before you fly. All kidding aside, I truly am grateful for the hardworking men and women of the TSA who strive to keep airline travel safe for everyone. It’s just disheartening when you’re the one who is picked out for search, and so undignified to have one’s most personal belongings tossed about. But I suppose that’s the price we have to pay for living in today’s world. Just one of the things that makes me long earlier times when travel wasn’t quite so fraught with fear.

Since my return, it’s been a busy week of catching up. I continue to write the Hollywood novel, aiming for a self-imposed, and perhaps somewhat unrealistic, deadline of June 30 to finish the first draft. I also finished up the museum exhibit labels about railroads, and completed a couple of editing projects. I also celebrated my birthday in there somewhere by going out to a delicious seafood dinner with my husband, so that was fun.  If we have to continue growing older, I find it’s best to celebrate the years and not bemoan them. Age comes upon us whether we want it to or not, so we might as well welcome it.

And now on to today’s topic in honor of mothers. First I must tell you, if you haven’t already guessed, that I’m not a mother myself. This is one of the deepest disappointments of my life. It makes Mother’s Day and the weeks running up to it excruciatingly painful at times. I find early May to be a good time to take a break from social media. But of course, I had a mother, and also a couple of wonderful grandmothers and a few marvelous aunts, and so around Mother’s Day I try to concentrate on the good memories I have of them instead of bemoaning my own barren state. Anyway, it does no good to complain about things we can’t change. I just want you to know that if your heart is hurting this Mother’s Day, for whatever reason, my heart goes out to you.

This year, to celebrate Mother’s Day in “Sparkling Vintage” style, I set out to find one specific mother who lived during our favorite time period of the early 20th century, someone who exemplified the kind of mother who makes an impact on the world through her children. And that is how I learned about a woman whose name was Morrow.

Morrow Coffey was born in North Carolina in 1892. In 1916 she married a man named William. Together the couple took up dairy farming and reared three children, but one thing that set them apart from many couples was that from the very first day of their marriage, they established a time of daily Bible reading and prayer. Morrow was once quoted as saying, “There’s only one right way to live and it’s all laid out in the Bible.” Although I’m sure she said it in a much more charming Southern accent. So the family would rise at dark o’clock in the morning to milk their large herd of cows. At breakfast they’d pray together, and Morrow would read a Bible verse off of a daily calendar, helping the children memorize verses. Then the kids would head off for school and Morrow and her husband William would spend their day doing the countless chores necessary to run a busy household and a working dairy farm. In the evening, tired as they must have been after a long, busy day, the family would gather once more to read the Bible and pray.

Morrow had her hands full, caring for her home and family during an era that straddled two world wars and the Great Depression in between. She would have done without so many of the modern conveniences available to us today. On the other hand, she lacked some of the distractions. She may have had radio but no TV, and certainly no Internet or social media, so perhaps not quite the same competition for her children’s attention. Still, as busy as she was, Morrow made the spiritual life of her children a high priority. She believed that the diligent prayers of a mother, and the disciplines imposed to develop their spiritual lives, would greatly influence her children’s choices as they grew up.

And she was right. Thanks to those quiet, patient lessons at home, one of Morrow’s grew up to have a had great impact for Christ all over the world over seventy years of ministry. You may have heard of him. He was the late evangelist, Billy Graham. Billy once described his upbringing this way: ““What we did have back then [during the Depression] was family solidarity. We really cared about each other, and we liked to do things together. Jesus’ word picture of a hen gathering her brood under her wing fits my mother. She saw to it that we gathered frequently and regularly—and not just around the dinner table or in front of the radio for favorite broadcasts. She gathered us around herself and my father to listen to Bible stories, to join in family prayers, and to share a sense of the presence of God.”

Today you can visit Morrow Graham’s former home on the former dairy farm. It’s now part of the Billy Graham Library and open to the public.

Of course, not all of a mother’s efforts will produce a man like Billy Graham. There are no guarantees. Some of the most diligent loving parents bring up children who eventually go astray, and some negligent parents manage to rear some amazing offspring. But Morrow’s life illustrates that it’s the day-to-day, habitual lessons and routines that have the best likelihood of being absorbed into children’s minds and hearts.

Whoever you are, and whatever your status as mother, grandmother, aunt, teacher, coach, or maybe just a friend, invest in the lives of children you know. Teach them your values, and help them develop the skills, habits, and thought patterns you want them to have as adults. Like Morrow Graham, you never know where your efforts might lead.

Happy Mother’s Day.!

If you have a question you’d like me to answer or a topic you’d like me to address, drop me a line at jenny@sparklingvintagelife.com. If you can take a few minutes to stop by iTunes or Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts and leave a positive review, that will help raise the visibility of the show so others can find it.

Today’s grace note is a podcast I’ve been enjoying called “The Modern Lady Podcast.” Whether you’re a mom or not, you’ll enjoy hearing hosts Lindsay and Michelle discuss a wide variety of topics that are of interest to women, in a warm, witty, and dignified manner. As I said earlier, I’m not a mom, and I still find most of their episodes fascinating and fun, like listening to friends talk around a kitchen table. Plus they always include an etiquette tip, along with the thought process behind it, that speaks to my own vintage-loving heart. Interesting and intelligent podcasts for women that are also clean and wholesome to listen to aren’t that easy to come by nowadays, so if you like podcasts, I encourage  you to give the Modern Lady podcast a try.