Peggy Mitchell Hall

MY MOTHER AND BEST FRIEND My Mother was a very fun loving person who enjoyed all things, especially water sports. As a child Momma and my step-father, Olen, would take me fishing on the Chickahominy River. We would go just about every weekend. Later, they bought a ski boat (this was how Momma messed up her knee) and they learned to ski. They then taught my grandmother, Nany, and myself to ski. I was seven and Nany was in her fifties. The three generations would ski all together. Momma would make potato salad, deviled eggs, and barbeque chickens and we would go to a place called Tuttles on the Chickahominy (because not only were they very nice people, they had a picnic table for us to have lunch on). We would stay all day, skiing, boating, eating, and laughing with family and friends. Every year on their vacation, we would go with friends of theirs, Jean & Herbert Johnson and their son Ken (who at that time was the love of my life) to Coles Point for a week of swimming, boating, and skiing. Later Momma remarried and she and my step-father, Ronnie, got a boat and because I had gotten older, the old life preservers were too small, so they would put a ski belt on me and see if I had to tread water too much, and then put on another ski belt so I wouldn't have such a time (not being a swimmer). Then they started going to Nagshead on vacation every year. I was in my twenties by then, so I only went one year. After she and Ronnie separated, Momma would go to the beach a lot of weekends, she so enjoyed the ocean. She is the only person I have ever known that could float in the ocean on her back with prescription sunglasses on and never lose them, while people like me were having trouble keeping their suit in place from the undercurrents! She and Donnie met and later after Momma retired, she bought a place at Buckroe. They had gone on various vacations to Nagshead and Atlantic Beach and Virginia Beach prior to this, but I don't think she ever loved anyplace as much as her place at Buckroe, fishing off the pier, and enjoying all of the people that she had met there. Every Fourth of July, there would be a big community cookout and we would go up on the deck on top of Momma's trailer to watch the fireworks. One particular year all her family was there the day before the Fourth celebration and I believe it was one of the best days for Momma. Another big day for her was her 80th birthday. We had a surprise party for her and she was surprised (Donnie and I neither one let the cat out of the bag). We told her we were going to my son Kenny's for his wife's baby shower. When we pulled in the yard, Momma asked me why Ann Rainey (longtime friend and co-worker at Verizon with Mom) was at Shannon's baby shower, so I had to tell her why we were there. She cried and I know it was one of the happiest moments we could have given her. Bill & Janine and Brittaney and Ashleigh had come from Bridgewater. We had invited friends that Momma worked with, Ann and Joan Cauley (we would have invited more, but at this age, so many of your friends are already gone). Kenny had gotten a ramp made so Momma could get in this house for the party. My long time friend, Lula, her daughter, Shelby, Danny Harper (Momma's banker and friend), and friends from the beach, Jim and Evelyn, Birdie and Linda, and Carol and Jim. Momma told me that she had not had a birthday party since she turned sixteen. This year we went to the Southern Women's Show together. I had been asking her to go and Donnie talked her into it. She had a great time and said she wanted to go again next year, but we don't always have tomorrows. My Mother and I had a lot of rough patches, but we worked through them and we were both stronger for them. She always has told me, go and do the things you want to do while you can, so you have no regrets. Although she had lost a lot of her independence from falls and health issues, I know my Mother had an eventful roller coast ride and I don't believe she had any regrets. "Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the things that take your breath away" and I know she had a lot of those moments. I have not lost my Mother or my best friend, she will be in my heart forever. I love you, Momma.