My mother is still raising her girl (even if she is going on 68)!I

I don't think anyone in my sacred, cherished family would be too surprised if the dear Lord decides to sound the clarion call for me first. To begin with, the top of our pyramid has taken good care of herself as opposed to her #1 & only daughter. She eats better foods, she has always exercised (used to pick 400 plus lbs. of cotton per day) & that didn't come from her, several others told me that; she chopped cotton, walked down approximately 1/4 mile for water before we got a pump, every time she got mad at dad, we would walk to Aunt Movidene's, she would take us to town to drag him out of Sandy's Beer Joint on the corner where the sheriff's office is now located (6th sense again). He did eventually get saved, PTL! As for her eating habits, oh my Lord!  She eats exactly the same foods, the same times of day; (i.e. bran cereal, prunes, soup, soup, soup, rice krispies, broccoli,vanilla wafers) I know the grocery list by heart, yet each Thursday she hands it me faithfully with a signed check. She has no idea how the price of things has risen, & would have a stroke if she knew eggs, for instance, cost at least $1.50 per doz. She does know that gas is costly because she can see/hear that often on tv & in our utility bills. The daughter is a carboholic, detests exercise, has read, been on, more diets than Oprah, spent enough money to rebuild Haiti trying to remedy the problem when all I would need to do would be to follow her example. She has had a pretty tough winter, has begun to fall, yet, she always says, I don't need a "device" as yet! She walks to the mailbox every day & gets very annoyed at federal holidays when there is no mail. Also, she can kind of nose through mine (which is fine with me). My life is an open book - I live in Bloomfield & am a Methodist! As my friend Annette says, take notes, there's a book here & I do agree with her. To the lady who has never been inside a beauty salon, never shaved her legs, never wears pants (shivers all winter long), still has finger waves, still has the same dresses she has had since the 70's so she could save every possible penny in order to maintain & have her own home because Homer was called home & opened that home to be my home because I needed a home, (her monthly check is a little over $800) all I can say is, most of the world out there just doesn't know what true womanhood entails. I salute you, Maude Imogene Malone Montgomery! (even if you did name me Cumi)