My Amazing Mom!

Now turning 89 after a near death experience in 1948
As Related To Sid Riley By Sharon McMillion
My Mom (Grandmother who raised me after my real Mom’s death), is Mrs. Irene Blaine, and she will be 89 years old on October 3. The fact that she lived through a terrible ordeal that occurred in 1948 is a testament to the love our Lord has for us all.
When she was 29 years old she was shot at her home in rural Jackson County, about fifteen miles out of Marianna. She hollered for help over a long period of time, until a neighbor two miles away responded to her faint cries. She was rushed to Jackson Hospital in terrible condition.
She had stayed alive while losing more blood than any of the Doctors could find documented in any medical records. As a result of the wound they were forced to amputate her arm. The five physicians who treated her were Dr. Wandeck, Dr. Cook, Dr. Whitaker, Dr. McKinnon, and Dr. McQuagge. While most of the group felt the effort was hopeless and she was sure to die, Dr. Whitaker refused to give up. Amazingly, she lived and recovered to live a full and fruitful life.
My amazing Mom taught school for forty two years. She taught in Jackson, Liberty, Washington, and Calhoun Counties, while she raised three children of her own, and me. We went through periods of being dirt poor. She mended clothes salvaged from the trash, since her uncle worked on the trash truck. That same uncle would bring cabbages home from the bad cabbages discarded by grocery stores because of bad leaves. Mom would remove the bad spots, clean up the cabbage and cook it for us all. I remember him bring us bags of rice that had been thrown away because of bugs. Mom would lay out the rice in the sun, clean the rice, then cook it for the family. The starch water left from the rice would be used to starch our clothes. She refused to let her loss of an arm ever hinder her progress in life.
Today she owns a house with six bedrooms and two baths, she owns two Cadillac’s that are thirty years old and look like new….and she doesn’t drive any more. She has gained all she has through hard work, a moral life, and a constant faith in God. She is a wise, hard working, God loving woman that I admire and respect. She is my hero.