Born August 2, 1894
Died December 7, 1987
My mother was quite small at about 5 feet tall and less than 100 pounds. She was very loving to Charles and me, probably more so to me because Charles never was still enough to love easily.
But she could also be a force to reckon with! Her main form of punishment was to cut a small branch from a bush to use as a switch which she would use on our behinds , but never hard enough to really hurt. When we were really bad, she would wait for Daddy to come home, at which time we would be invited to go into his “office” to receive a few whacks on our bottoms with a belt. That treatment we did not like! I must say that Charles received it much more than did I.
Mother was a stay-at-home mom, as were most in her crowd during the Depression. She drove an Oldsmobile.
Mother was an active volunteer. She served on the Board of Hillside Cottages (for orphans) for many years as well as helping out at our schools and more.
She moved from 87 West Wesley Road, where I grew up, into a very nice condominium on Peachtree Road after Daddy died and Charles finally moved out. She finally became too infirm to take care of herself and moved to Wesley Woods, a nice retirement home in Atlanta.
Even there she volunteered to read to other residents. When i visited she loved going to the Varsity and getting a hamburger and fries,
A few months after mother became 93, Charles advised me that I had better come and see her, which I did. She had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure. She was confined to a wheel chair. Her mind was still clear but had slowed down. She recognized me and could talk very slowly about what interested her. She asked to be pushed around. We made several circuits, after each she would say: “One more time, Bub”. And one more time it was.
Not lang after, Charles got a phone call one morning from Helen Alphabet, mother’s caregiver. “Mr. Currie, I got a problem - your mother done expired”.
Mother had been to Smith College but, during her second year, had to return to Atlanta to take care of her mother after the death of her father. She finished college at Agnes Scott in Atlanta but always treasured her time at Smith and a few friends that she made there. She supported herself as a trained dietician until she got married to my father when she stopped working.
They bought a house on Morningside Drive in Atlana, which is where Charles and I were born. We mover to 87 W. Wesley Road when I was four.
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