My mother passed away last week. (April 14th, 2009) She had just turned 97. Thankfully, I had just been to Iowa to visit. (funeral photos are on Flickr.) 

She had a long, often hard life, yet even so she never lost her enjoyment of the world around her.

Here are some photos from that life:

Here's a young Wavie Ellen Miller in the late 1920s, before college, before the great drepression wiped out her college money. She worked her way through school and then taught at a one room school-house.

Here's Wavie and daughter Mary Ellen, circa 1945.

Here's the Garden of Mom, circa 1985

Here's one of my last photos of Mom. She wasn't sure who I was, maybe one of her brothers, but she still had a smile and a glint in her eye.

Enjoy your rest Mom. It's well earned.