I have been thinking about something Erica said in a recent post about mothering....

Thinking about the women I have come from...

My mother was not a strong woman, or what I consider a strong woman. She was rather meek and mild mannered as far as I was concerned. She was thrust into the position of having to be strong, not by choice, but, by necessity. She was the oldest child who had to take charge a lot because her Mother also had been thrust into the position of sole bread winner in their family by a husband who came back from the war mentally broken. People in those days didn't talk about mental illness in a family but from what I have gleaned over the years that is what happened to my Grandfather. All that was ever said about him is that he was quiet, very quiet, read a lot, was intelligent but he couldn't (for reasons never mentioned) make their living. So, Mama (as we all called her) took over as head of the household. She ran a community grocery store/post office during the depression and was post mistress. She couldn't drive (and Grandpa just didn't) so a lot of responsibility to fell to my Mother. Grandfather died young leaving Mama on her own. She sold the store and moved into town (Ada)making her living doing cleaning, laundry and ironing for other people.

My mother never wanted to be the bread winner of our family, had no intentions of doing so. But, when Daddy became disabled she stepped up (like her Mother had done) and took the challenge by going back to school to get certified as a nutritionist and going to work in a local private school for children with disabilities.

From what I have heard of my Great Grandmother was that she was an extremely hard working woman who raised not only her own family but two of her grandchildren whose Mother died young, was a preachers wife, took care of an invalid Uncle and was the rock of the entire family structure.

So, my women had it in them to be strong courageous women even if they didn't particularly want to be. If they had lived in any other time they might have become feminists by choice.

I think if their stories were told most women have that innate strength inside them. And, we are the lucky ones, the women who aren't expected to be meek or mild mannered. We can let our strengths shine without shame.

I hope to live long enough to see what kind of women Zoe's generation produces.