Butler Family Diaries

Mammaw’s Loving Touch
by Marni Davis Lathrop

During life we encounter special people who love us uncondionally. My Mammaw was one of those people to me.

The day that I was born she waited and waited for me to arrive. Everyone else had gone home she said except for her and Grandma South. She would smile with such pride as she remembered it in her mind. She would then tell me “Dr. Young walked out into the waiting room and layed you in my arms. My first moment in life was welcomed by “My Mammaw’s loving Touch.”

As I grew into a child and I was learning to behave, she knew right when to administer “Mammaw’s loving touch” just as soon as she could find the fly swatter.

If times were ever rough at home all I had to do is call her on the phone. She never said today was not good for her or she was too tired for company. Mammaw never said maybe next weekend. Instead She would turn her tires over so fast it threw gravel behind her as she pulled out on that number 1 highway to come to pick me up. She would speed to me to take me into her arms and give me “Mammaw’s Loving touch” then away we’d go back to Mammaw’s and Papaw’s house. There she would say I think I have some oatmeal scotchies or a chocolate pie just sit down and I will get you some. Then she would take me into the living room and she would rock me in the rocking chair and I did not have a care in the world because I knew I was loved and safe.

We would go visit Aunt Pearl and Grandma Brawner just to make sure they were ok. But Mammaw always carried them something to make them feel special. She gave them “Mammaw’s Loving touch” through a hot lunch or dinner or perhaps she had just made a cake or canned some pickles or jelly whatever she had she made sure they had some too.

We would work in the garden and in the flowerbeds. Pappaw would turn it over and then we would plant and weed and pick and can what we grew. She always had such a clean garden row. I have tried it myself as an adult but I mostly grew weeds and nothing else. I just do not have “Mammaw’s Loving Touch”.
Our family used to have big dinners that she would make for us. She would stay up all night cooking and start baking a week ahead of time. She wanted to make sure that everyone had their favorites. Each bite was so delicious you knew that it was made with “Mammaw’s Loving Touch”

She was so happy and proud to be a mother. She would say so proudly, “I was married eleven years before I had my first baby. Then I had: Ann, Scott, Barry, James and Lisa. She never forgot how many children she had even at the end when she did not always remember what day it was or how old she was. She was so proud of her babies and grand babies and great grandbabies.

Mammaw was so devoted to Pappaw she loved him so much. She said I promised your grandfather out in the garden that I would always be Mrs. Odis Brawner until I died. She stayed by his side through each and every hospital stay giving gladly my Mammaw’s Loving Touch. If he was going to be their then she was not going to leave him alone. I would catch her crying and talking to herself, or God, hoping he would get well and come home with us. Then I heard her say she did not want him to suffer she would rather him go on to Heaven. Then she let him go so unselfishly with “Mammaw’s Loving Touch”.

Aunt Pearl was such a wonderful mother and sister to her. Grandma Rhodes was the mother she knew but Aunt Pearl was also a mother to her. She was the great grandmother I knew. Mammaw would say lets go see Pearl and we would walk that sidewalk to her house. Then Mammaw and Aunt Pearl would walk around and look at their beautiful flowers and shrubs and that famous Smoke tree that was planted between their houses. Mammaw would say and truly believed there would be a cloud of smoke around it when it bloomed. Aunt Pearl and Grandma Rhodes gave Mammaw her Loving Touch that only a mother can give. Mammaw’s mother died just 9 days after she was born. I am sure that she held her in her arms with that same loving Touch until God needed her to come back home.

I am so thankful to have had Mammaw as my grandmother. She lived a long life full of “Mammaw’s Loving Touches”. Mom said the last week of her life before she went to the hospital, Mammaw would look up at the ceiling and call out “Aunt Pearl” and “Momma”. I now believe that they were coming to take her hand and lead her to Heaven. On her last day here on earth she was at the hospital, the nurses were bringing her back from a test and asked us to wait in the hall while they get her settled. I could not obey, I felt compelled to go in the room and touch her hand before they could move her to the bed. I felt I had to touch her at that moment in time and now I know that is because that was the last time I would have my Mammaw’s Loving Touch. I believe that as I was holding her hand in this world while Aunt Pearl and Mammaw’s Mother was holding her other hand and leading her to Heaven. What a wonderful Mother’s Day she will have with all of her mothers and their Loving Touches.