Southerners sometimes get a bad rap from all the South bashers around the country. Actually, we’re mostly a pretty good bunch of folk who work hard and have made lasting contributions to our family, state, society and nation.
Today, I’m remembering a daughter of the South, my own Mother on what would have been her 82nd birthday. She was born in a small S.C. town in the mid 1930’s while the nation was in the midst of the Great Depression. That’s when folk were losing what they had due to hard economic times. Many lost not only their jobs, but also their home and their material possessions.
Her great grandfathers on both sides had fought in the ‘late unpleasantness’ to defend their family and state and she had learned the lessons of the children in those days having grown up conserving everything. Contrary to much confusion and inaccurate history today, she as a Southerner was not the daughter of wealthy slave holders and her ancestry did not own slaves either. Rather, she was the daughter of subsistence farmers who were in the same or lesser economic condition as many slaves had been.
She was also a daughter of the Revolution, having had another great great that had provided service and material to the provincial army in the Revolution of ’76. She had inherited that trait honestly as she was a fighter like her forefathers were.
I’m reminded of her diligence and willingness to work hard to make sure that everybody in her household had what they needed when I was young, and after I had a family. She never wanted anybody to do without what they needed that would satisfy their heart. She reminds me of the Proverb at 31:13, which says “She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.”
White and black “cotton pickers” were typically paid about 60 to 75 cents a day for 100 pounds of cotton gathered in a huge sack. Even then they only got to keep half what they made, the other half went to the landlord. Sharecroppers often had their children in the fields picking cotton with them. Cotton farming was hard backbreaking work and the cotton bolls were sharp and often cut the hands and fingers of the pickers. Photo: Daysgoneby
I’ve seen very few who have the willingness to work with their hands that way today for their family and the prosperity of their future generations. Young people would learn a few lessons from folk who have been through trial as she had.
My Mother had learned to work in the cotton fields in South Carolina when she was just a young girl as a daughter of sharecroppers. Sharecroppers were pretty much slaves working for a roof over their heads. She told stories of her youth picking cotton as a child until her hands were bloody while pulling a 100lb sack full of the cotton she had picked.
She experienced poverty and ridicule from other children who were better off financially, but none had greater compassion and generosity toward those without as she did when she became an adult. She had a giving spirit and shared her substance and the hope she had with many others. She had vowed as a child, along with the fictional character Scarlet O’Hara of Gone With the Wind fame, that she would ‘never be hungry again’ after suffering a challenging and poor childhood.
She talked often of the woman being the “weaver” of the home. Women of all ages should take note of that and how it would prosper their home. One can weave hard work, thrift, loyalty, faithfulness, fruitfulness, peace, happiness, encouragement, etc. or they can sow laziness, discord, division, discouragement and despair. She also taught boys and girls to be “tough as nails” and to stand up for the right and against the wrong.
She personally brought us children to church and stayed there with us to participate in the service. Her favorite hymn was In the Garden and she sang in the choir at church meetings. She gave testimony of how God had worked in her life and encouraged us to participate in church activities. She prayed and ministered at the church altar and everywhere else. She ministered to many in need with no fanfare, just stopping by their house to make a ‘delivery’ to those in need, black, white, brown, orange, it didn’t matter. I’ve seen her give her last dollar to someone in need saying ‘they need it more than me’ and followed by ‘the LORD will provide what we need.’
Barbara Reed Jurgensmeyer, a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother, and a grandmother. She declared the year 2013 as The Year of Healing! She was healed that year. There is no more pain, crying or suffering for her since that time. Photo: Personal from Editor
She was that smiling and cheering face on the sidelines for us children and in the bleachers when we were playing sports or participating in an activity. She was doing the same for her grandchildren as their biggest fan.
In her latter years she suffered with much pain, discomfort and physical affliction from a terrible cancer which slowed her and at times caused her a sour face. She had faith and was an optimist and through it all she continued to tell us ‘you’ve got to be tough as nails’ no matter what. Thankfully she no longer has to deal with that, she has gone to a land where there is ‘no more pain and no more tears.’
She was a Christian committed unto the LORD her God. It is the hope of every Christian that they will hear the words ‘well done thou good and faithful servant’ when they approach the kingdom entrance of the Almighty when life on earth is over. I’m sure she is there now singing his praises.
She left a lasting impression on all who knew her, especially her family. She was a woman of conviction and faith. A competitor with compassion and quick to forgive a wrong done towards her. She was willing to go the extra mile and pray with you too. She was generous with what little she had, and was blessed to be able to give of the abundance she had been blessed with. She was a daughter of the South and proud of it. She harbored no ill will toward even those who had hurt her. She was a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother, a grandmother and a child of the King.
She’s been gone from our sight for six years now, but she’ll never be out of our lives. This sharecroppers daughter made a lasting impression with her life experiences, her insightful knowledge, her tremendous faith and Godly wisdom that will not be forgotten in her future generations to come. The scriptures describe her in Proverbs 31:28, “Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.”
Those with the blessed hope of the Christian will see her again one day. Until then, I will thank the Almighty for her, and commemorate the one who gave me birth with a cheery ‘Happy Birthday’ on hers.
Michael Reed is Editor of The Standard, a pastor, businessman and conference speaker.
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