Momma's Pennies

[HokeyReligions]

When I was born my parents didn’t have much money. My dad had just been diagnosed with an almost unheard of disease – Multiple Sclerosis. He could no longer work and my mom stayed home to care for him. We lived on his Veterans pension. It wasn’t always enough.

 

We complain about the high cost of health care today, but back then (and it wasn’t all that long ago!) my parents didn’t have the advantages that many people have today. Mom couldn’t go to work because dad required 24 hour care and then there was a new baby--me.

 

My parents had some tough times and hard financial worries then. I say ‘my parents’ because all I ever knew was my dad’s illness and mom sheltered me from her tears. I never realized how hard it was for them until I was grown. They both made my childhood as ‘normal’ as they could. I didn’t know we were very much different from other families. The only difference I saw was that others would go on vacations and I would go visit people in hospitals. I guess I just thought that other families visited people in hospitals that were a lot farther away and required a suitcase!

 

There was never a savings account – that was a dream and something other families had. But we had wealth. More than many of the richest people could fathom.

 

And there were momma’s pennies.

 

Every time we came back from the store we would put away the groceries and I would sit down and sort all the pennies from the change. Sometimes there were one or two and sometimes almost a dime’s worth.

 

Momma would put those pennies into empty coffee jars. Not coffee cans – momma liked instant and she bought a new jar of coffee four times a year.

 

When the jar was full we would go to the bank and get lots of penny wrappers and momma and I would sit down in the evening and count pennies and wrap them. We would laugh and try to make each other lose count and sometimes the counting lasted for hours – or days. Then the wrapped pennies would go back in the jar and she would put it in her closet and the left over pennies would go into a second jar. It seemed like we only ever had three jars. I don’t know what became of the others.

 

I remember one time when I was 10 we had been wrapping pennies for ages it seemed and when we were done we took them to the bank to put into the checking account to pay the bills. We had fifty-seven dollars worth of pennies and we had them all in a heavy bag and it took both of us to carry them in! We must have looked pretty funny lugging that big bag between us!

 

After that we cashed in the pennies once a year so they wouldn’t be so heavy.

 

After daddy died his VA pension stopped and mom went to work. I was still in high school but I got a part-time job and went to work full time right after graduation. We had enough money to pay the bills and get by. Momma still kept saving her pennies and I did too and we still cashed them in every year.

 

The years went by, I got married and then made it to college and momma got a better job and life took care of itself for us just like it does for everyone.

 

Momma is 79 now and very ill. She hasn’t been able to work since 1989. She gets a small social security check each month so she doesn’t get many pennies back from shopping anymore. She moved in with us almost seven years ago and we took care of her bills and needs. She went into a nursing home a month ago for rehabilitation after a fall and a heart attack. During that time we had new floors put into our house.

 

Now, I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the best housekeeper in the world. I sweep mom’s room and take care of her needs but I seldom move big furniture out of the way – I just sweep under things as far as I can reach---shoving aside the storage boxes that have lived under beds for years.

 

When the installers came to do the floors they moved momma’s bed – and out rolled three jars – the same jars she had when I was a child – full of momma’s pennies.

[quankanne]

what an endearing memory to share, hoke! How is your mama, by the way? Has she had a chance to see the new floor y'all put in?

[littlekitty]

How beautiful.... Momma's Pennies.

[Leikela]

What a beautiful story. This would be perfect for a Chicken Soup for the Soul book! I would definitely think about sending it in.

[Fun2BMe]

That's a sweet story.

[Matislia]

That is definitly Chicken Soup for the Soul material. How endearing. How is your mother?