Today my mother, an outstanding woman, she wasn't rich or well known outside of Braddock, but she was much loved by everyone who knew her.
My mother was in a car accident because her then fiance was drunk she was told she would never walk again but with fierce determination she worked hard she walked again and regained movement in all but her right arm. The feelings in her legs did not return until she was at the end of her life.
She survived an abusive marriage and left her husband in the early 60s. She met and fell in love with my dad. She was a single mother of two girls at a time when single mothers for any other reason but being a widow was rare.
She married my dad and they had 3 more daughters. My mother was a champion for other poor people. She was the President of the PTA of an inner city school district. She also advocated on behalf of people with Mental Illness and Intellectual Disabilities by sitting on the board of Turtle Creek Valley MH/MR.
My mother found Christ and became a Christian her church became her home. She also was very independent and until the last few years of her life she had no problems getting up and going.
She raised her daughters to never give up when times were hard but to keep fighting. This has kept me from giving up when I lost my babies, or battling cancer and an auto immune disease. I was diagnosed with a Learning Disability as a child, actually 53 different ones, my mother spent many hours encouraging me to go on.
My mother faught the teachers for mistreating the poor kids and faught against the Desegregation of General Braddock because she felt the poor and black students would be hurt. The black parents didn't want this merger anymore than the rich white folks. Like my mom they worried about their kids. This was Woodland Hills turns out they were right. Woodland Hills was and still is a disaster.
My mom became a grandmother then a great grandmother and with much love she passed away, sorrounded by her children and grandchildren at the age of 78. She went home to be with the Lord and my dad.
Today, I sit on her 80th birthday and remember the remarkable woman who was my mother. Rest with God Edie Mae McCombs I love you always.
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