Providence Presbyterian Church - Powdersville SC

“Holding hands we are a Circle of love.

It is not accidental that we have

come to be here, for we have joined before…”

Circles of the Spirit – one that was taught to me early in my life by my precious “mom.” Somehow the word Mother never quite took with Myra Virginia McMahan Carroll Parks (have you ever heard so many names?). No, she was only two names to our family – “Mom” and “Nannue.” She was the bank where I deposited all my joys, hurts and worries.

We were a family of five, living in the Dunean community where my dad worked at JP Stephens and my mom worked outside the home. Although she was absent during the day – she was an amazing woman when she came through the door and was finally at home. She had a Hoosier cabinet (some of you are probably thinking, “a what?”) but this is where she made bread for every meal we ate and as she stood there making bread, she taught me some lessons of life I will never forget. She was a Sunday School Teacher, and that carried over into our home. In fact, when she died twelve years ago, she had taught at Dunean Baptist Church for 58 years….I cannot imagine the stamina that took for a commitment to study and teach God’s word for so many years, but teach it she did and she lived what she taught.

Now, this is not to say that she was not a fun-loving woman – she took great joy in getting with her three girls – Jane, Dianne and me, and tell us the funniest stories we had ever heard. She loved weaving stories for us, and when she and her sisters got together, the ghost stories were famous! Eventually word spread of the experts they were at weaving stories and kids from all over the neighborhood came to listen and be mesmerized at what they heard.

Mom was not just a fun-loving woman – she was a working woman – she worked outside the home, she sewed all of our clothes, she cleaned the house and made certain that we learned to clean it like she did. I still smile today at the sameness of things that I do that she taught me and am so grateful for. She also taught us manners – to write notes, to be polite, to clean behind our ears and to cook. The one thing I regret most, not one of us ever learned to sew as beautifully as she did. However, my daughter, Missy, watched and learned from her and continues today to sew beautifully. Mom could take a piece of material and turn it into a masterpiece. I remember when I was in the sixth grade I got my first “store bought” dress and thought it was the pretties thing I had ever had….until I got to school and my teacher asked me, “Where did you get that outfit? I know Myra Carroll didn’t make that.” Talk about letting the air out of my balloon….but that didn’t keep me from wanting those dresses from the department stores through my teen years until I eventually came to my senses…a little. Nothing you could buy compared to the beauty of one of her outfits that she made for us and for herself.

My parents believed in vacations – we would go on ventures to the beach or the mountains (which my dad did reluctantly), but the McMahan Clan came from the Chimney Rock area, and sometimes we would go back to “the roots of where it all began for them” and we would again listen to the stories they would weave while we played with our cousins.

I guess the most beautiful and wonderful thing mom taught me was the love of God, family and friends. If she was your friend – you had one for life. Now, she may tell you exactly what she thought, but that didn’t mean she didn’t love you….she just believed in honesty and speaking the truth – regardless – but always as a lady. I will never forget one Sunday we were all in church and my oldest sister’s picture was in the Greenville News because she was an upcoming participant in the Miss Greenville Contest. Now in the 50’s, nothing was revealing, so you can imagine the bathing suit she had on and she was sitting in our backyard. Well, my dad was called on to make an apology for the picture… since he was a leader in the church….I thought then and there my mom was going to go to the front of that church and do the sermon….and you’d have to be Baptist to understand where this would have gone. She did have her say, though, and she did it as forthright and honest as she always was.

Mom was a woman of great beauty, talent and love for her family and her beloved six grandchildren. She gave each of us a quilt she made by hand and in the quilt she lovingly placed pieces of material she had saved from our own clothes, the clothes of our children and special costumes we had each worn in plays along with fabric from her own clothing and ties that belonged to my dad. This quilt was a remnant of her faith, skill and visible act of love for the three of us and the granddaughter who was her name-sake, Myra Melinda Felix. Needless to say, these quilts all have a place of honor in each of our homes.

On this Mother’s Day, I remember and I smile and hope that the saying, “Apples don’t fall far from the tree” is true and I hope that some of the beautiful things she passed to me I was able to pass on to my children and my grandchildren. Grace and peace, Becky