Remarkable Women

November seems to have been a month honoring “Remarkable Women”. A national news channel is looking for Remarkable Women to honor. One of the Wichita Falls TV stations was also seeking local Remarkable Women.

What does it take to be named a “Remarkable Woman”?

My grandmother was 20 when she married my grandfather who was 20 years older and divorced with four children. Some were adults and not in the home when they married, but she had to deal with a 13-year-old step-daughter at home. She and her husband had two more daughters.

My grandfather passed away after they had been married for only 35 years. My grandmother was a widow at 53, she passed away shortly before her 90th birthday. After becoming a widow, my grandmother and my mother moved into the same house and she helped transport us to and from school while Mother worked 10 hours a day at Haggar Slacks.

My grandmother was a remarkable woman. Raising three children with little help from our father after a divorce, Mother worked at several jobs. She worked in the admitting office of Hamilton Hospital for many years before Haggar Slacks moved in. A higher paying job made the decision to change jobs, and get away from 8 hour shifts that rotated. At that time the hospital office was manned 24 hours a day. Dealing with sitters during my mother’s night shifts was difficult. Some weeks she had to rely on them for cooking supper and getting us to do homework.

After working at Haggar Slacks probably from the time it opened here in Olney until it closed, she held a job at the newspaper for many years. The job included answering the phones, taking ads for the classified section and sometimes information for the display ads, and bookkeeping. She later wrote articles featuring weddings, obituaries, and club meetings. For a time Mother worked at a western wear store that had a monogramming machine she worked with to personalize shirts. An excellent seamstress, she had sewn for the public at times and she made wedding gowns for step daughters, daughters and a granddaughter. She also sewed school clothes for her daughters and western shirts for musicians. There’s the woman who with her husband built up a business supporting her children and employing people locally. Successful, she has benefited the city with several businesses and contributions to help the police department and the healthcare system in Olney and much more. Then there are all the female teachers you ever had in school from Pre-K through college, Sunday school, and job training.

Basically it is my opinion that all women are Remarkable.