Last week we said goodbye to my mother Betty Murray. As complicated as the quilts she sewed, she was orderly yet expansive and adaptable. She taught by example and lived her life trying to be the kind of person she wanted to see in others. Do whatever it takes. Just keep trying when things get tough. But mostly she wanted to see people be kind and take care of each other.
She was a lover of history always wanting to visit museums and memorials when we took vacations. We watched things like Roots, and North and South whenever they came on the television. Growing up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains with she always carried with her a love of nature and enjoyed hiking in the trees, visiting national parks, and taking every opportunity to go to the ocean.
She was a teacher and a bookeeper. A fabric fiend and a crafter of many mediums. But most of all she was a caregiver. As a housewife, a mother of 2, grandmother of 4, and aunt to countless cousins, so many people looked to her for love and support and she always showed up to it to the best of her ability.
