Everyone has a story. I’d like to share my mother’s story by taking you on a visual journey, introducing you to her family, some of her friends, and her wonderful spirit of adventure.
Most of what I have to share are memories long forgotten. When mom passed away, my sisters and I were left to sort through her belongings. During that process, I came upon an ordinary, unmarked brown box. Inside the box was family treasure, more valuable than anything imaginable.
The box contained memorabilia and photos important enough for mom to save, each item historic, marking time and place for her. It was a box whose contents were partly unknown. Little details were discovered about mom, including hard-earned life lessons that these new revelations about her could offer. It was if mom was still here, giving us advice, reminding us of the importance of family.
Like the release of a genie from its bottle, the contents of the box spewed forth revealing a wonderful story of love, adventure, and family. It’s a story about origins where my sisters, the grandkids, and I come from. Perhaps Mom’s story will remind us of what is important in life and how to get where we dream to go.
I took photos of nearly everything in the box so that I could give its priceless content to my sisters. I love to travel and live with less. I would be satisfied with a digital copy that I could conjure up in cyberspace anytime I wished to talk to mom.
As if looking for something important to reveal itself, I found a need to structure the box’s content. I would call it Mom’s Story. The project would give me some needed clarity about life and family. Perhaps Mom’s grandkids would get to know their family better.
Thus using my own selective filter, I assembled one interpretation of the content of the box. It’s astonishing to think one’s life can be so easily compressed, though each memorabilia, left to ponder, inflated to reveal a remarkable life journey of over 90 years.
Mom was a mother, a good one. Mom was a housewife, several times over. She prayed to her God always, even when her Church abandoned her. Mom was a dancer who encouraged us with music and movement. She was a fantastic cook who studied her culinary art. She was a friend to many. She was optimistic. She loved to travel.
I hope that you enjoy her story. I began with her childhood and family. Mom felt the prejudice of a first generation Lithuanian foreigner in America. She stopped speaking Lithuanian and changed her last name from Simonovich to Simon. Mom revealed this to me when I turned 50. She wanted to blend in and be accepted.
Mom was very close to her older sister, Joan. Thus there is a chapter on The Fibigers. They played and danced together professionally. They married their husbands and moved from Chicago to Portland, Oregon. They bought small homes in the same neighborhood. We enjoyed all the important holidays together. We could walk to their house, cutting through the back yard. Our families were close.
Mom’s mother, Anna, was from the Old Country, Lithuania. She hated the communists and fled home for America at the age of 18. She wanted me to become a doctor. She had a featherbed. Her first husband was run over by a horse on the streets of Chicago. She worked hard scrubbing floors to supports her family. She would tell Mom and Joan to stay inside and promise not to go out the door. They promised, never breaking the promise. Instead they took the second story fire escape out the window to the streets below to play with their friends.
Mom was 14 when she left home. She got a secretarial job. She took dance lessons and then took to the county fair circuit, dancing chorus line performances. She changed her name a couple of times, something catchy and suited to a professional dancer, Jeanette Day.
Mom was married three times: Glen, Ed, and Robin. She had three children: Kent, Lesa, and Joni. She loved the ocean. She loved to travel. And in every photo, each speaking a multitude, you will begin to understand Mom’s story. She deserves a pedestal and I’m giving her one.
Love you, Mom.
Love you, Mom.
The 5 Videos
There are 5 videos below, each representing a segment of Mom’s Life Story. The content for her story comes from photos and other memorabilia that she had kept her entire life, marking the passage of time. I've tried to piece together her story from what I found in an unmarked, brown cardboard box stuffed away in her closet. I hope that you enjoy the videos.
Video 1 of 5
In this video you will see the early years of my mother, meet her first husband, Glen, and me, their son.
Video 2 of 5
In this video you will meet my sister, Lesa. You will also meet mom's second husband and Joni's father, Ed.
Video 3 of 5
In this video you will meet my sister, Joni. You will also meet Mom's sister, Joan, and her family. We were very close to the Fibiger family growing up, spending nearly every holiday together. You will also meet the parents of Mom and Glen.
Video 4 of 5
In this video you will meet Mom's grandkids: Alex, Steve, Rod, Chandra, Travis, Anna, Joe, and Holly.
Video 5 of 5
In this video you will meet Robin, Mom's third husband of 25 years. you will enjoy the many places that they traveled. You will know the Beach House where Mom spent many days with family, friends, and where her ashes were scattered in the ocean along with Robin's.
Below in the blog archive you will find a pathway to the Wade family history or click on this yellow link: Wade Family History
