Mama's Last Sunset and The Fast Pass to Heaven!

The Soul Sisters have been very sad lately.  We have not spoken of our loss, but here goes...Our mom, possibly the sweetest soul ever, passed away in her sleep on September 11, 2021, at the age of 78.  If she would not have had Bobo, her Superman husband (our dad), she would never have made it to 78.  He loved and cared for her until the very end.  She was one loved woman.

Poor thing had a dang heart attack when she was 59 years old.  Mama would never have wanted to put anyone out, but doggone if she didn't have the heart attack in the early hours of Christmas morning back in 2001.  We got her through this and relied on Santa Claus to finish the job at our house with our little children, Callie, Rob, and Maffie.  I feel certain that Santa had to bring in Mrs. Claus and a few elves for backup, though.  Santa always has to spend a little extra time at the Cochran houses.

We had so many scares with mama since 2001, but she kept pressing on doing life as best as she could.  Over the years, she developed Alzheimer's, but she always remembered Bobo and Kim (1969).  She remembered me, but my name was Mary Ellen.  I did not mind being Mary Ellen.  Mary Ellen was on The Walton's TV show and she was really nice. 

Mama saw her last sunset on September 11, 2021.  When she woke up the next morning, she had walked through the valley and was in the light filled with the Love of God.  I can only imagine how happy she was!

When she arrived to heaven, I am sure that she saw St. Peter at the pearly gates.  Well, Mama was so sweet, I think he gave her a FAST PASS, like you get at Disney, to get into the gates at Heaven.  After all, Disney is kind of like Heaven, right?  Mama sure was like a princess, too.  She had that fair skin like Snow White.

I am sure when she saw her mom and dad, she was just beyond thrilled.  She hadn't seen her mama since 1987, and her daddy since 1960.  She had lots to tell them.  Hopefully, she didn't remember some of our crazy family shenanigans because we surely had our share.  Mama was a trouper in the Cochran crowd.  Actually, more like the "Super Trouper" that Abba sang about in 1980.

You know that saying, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.  Well, in the case of me and Kim, we honestly did not fall in the same orchard as Mama.  And Bobo, our dad, I think he was one of the original Little Rascals as a child (probably Spanky).  No doubt, he is the ORIGINAL Chevy Chase.  I feel certain someone wrote Chevy Chase vacation by watching Bobo's in shenanigan action.  Basically, we had Snow White living under the same roof with Lucy, Ethel, and Chevy Chase.

Speaking of trees, I guess this reminds me of one of our Christmas tree stories.  We always used to go out to Mr. Robert Swearingen’s property in Reynolds, Georgia, and cut down a Christmas tree.  One time, Bobo and Dan (Kim's Hubby), headed out to Mr. Robert’s property.  Bobo finds the perfect tree, that is very, very tall.  Well Dan, (which should have been Mama’s son) said, "Mr. Bob I don’t think that tree will fit in the living room."  Now y’all, we had a sunken living room that was 18 foot tall.  Bobo said, "Oh we can make it fit, Dan-O.  It will be fine."  Dan says again, "It's too big, Mr. Bob."  They proceed to cut down the tree.  Bobo and Dan head to Sherwood Drive and me and Kim are waiting at the door to help get the tree in the door.  Bobo and Dan drag the tree in the house and get the tree up with a few pushes and hear a big "RIPPPPPPPPP"!!!!!.  They back up and look and see 6 inches of the tree has gone thru the roof.  We all turn around and see Mama.  She walks up. She Looks. She grins.  She shakes her head and walks off.  From then on out, we headed to the Macon Farmer’s Market to get a nice tree and to keep Mama happy.

I loved Mama to be happy.  I never wanted to let her down or embarrass her at school, even at an early age.  My first-grade teacher was Mrs. Jeraldine Cooper, at a small, country school down in Mauk, Georgia.  We were in class one day and Gina Bone started tapping her feet.  Well, Gina was my best friend and I thought I would start tapping my feet, too.  Miss Jeraldine said, "Girls, stop tapping your feet."  Like many days, the devil got hold of me for a few minutes and I just kept on tapping my feet.  In the blink of an eye, I found Miss Jeraldine pulling me out of my desk and tapping me pretty hard on my behind with a ruler.  Lordy, I did not want Mama finding out, so I certainly did not tell her!  So that summer, we were in the Dime Store in Butler, Georgia.  Now, I am not sure why it was the Dime Store because there were tons of stuff there that costed more than a dime.  Anyway, I had my new Robin Hood lunch box in hand at the cash register standing behind Mama and low and behold, in walks Mrs. Jeraldine Cooper.  I did some hard praying in that line that she would not mention the spanking to Mama because I did not want to let my Mama down.  Well, thank goodness she didn’t.  So, when I turned 21, I finally told mama that I got a spanking in first grade.  Finally, my guilt was gone and my mama got a good giggle and I felt relief for finally admitting my bad behavior in 1^st Grade.  The devil is everywhere folks!  Even in Mauk, Georgia!

When I was in 2^nd grade with Mrs. Rita Parks, we had a Thanksgiving play with Pilgrims and Native Americans.  I got the part of an old lady!  I was so excited about this part!  Mama and Mama Winnie (my grandma) start making an old lady Pilgrim costume for the Thanksgiving play.  Well, I tell you.  I was an amazing old lady Pilgrim.  I had everything but the buckles on my shoes.  When I get to school on the day of the play, I notice the other old ladies and old men were dressed like old ladies and old men from the 1970s, not the 1600s.  Mrs. Parks, my teacher said, "Why are you dressed like a pilgrim?" I said, "Mrs. Parks, you said dress like an old lady and this is a Thanksgiving play."  So, we just all went with it.  And I can assure you that I was the best dressed old lady pilgrim on the stage at the Beechwood School that day. 

When we weren’t running back and forth to Beechwood School in Marshallville, Georgia, we would take trips to St. George Island during the summer.  We would go down there and stay at the Buccaneer.  One summer we went down there in our blue Chevrolet station wagon with the brown paneling.  When we went to the beach, we always loved looking for shells.  On this particular trip, we found a ton of conch shells and sand dollars.  We loaded them all up in whatever we could find in the back of the station wagon and headed back home to Butler.  Mama had read somewhere you had to let them dry out in the sun.  We get the shells out of the car and Bobo puts them on the top of a utility shed that we had in the backyard.  We start smelling a smell in the neighborhood in a few days.  The smell gets worse and our neighbor, Mr. Bob Daniels, starts calling around to see if anyone knows what the bad smell is in the hood.  Mr. Bob is concerned that someone has a dead animal and does not realize it.  Of course, Mama realizes the smell is the shells and sand dollars on top of the utility house and is mortified.  Let's just say that Bobo removed the shells and this incident remained a family secret until now.

We did love St. George Island.  We continued the tradition with the grandkids.  Every year, we would pack it up and hit the road to the prettiest beach on Earth.  Now, Mama started shopping at Sam’s Wholesale Club in January for a trip in July.  One summer we packed up 3 trucks and a boat and headed to St. George.  I mean y’all when we go to the beach, we even take our hermit crabs.  The way we looked at it, we were taking the hermit crabs back to the home place to visit their kinfolks.  On the way down, mama found this educational aquarium that we could visit.  The Aquarium looked awesome.  We all got out of the trucks with the grandkids and visited this cute little aquarium.  As soon as we got ready to head back to the trucks, we got drenched.  It rained cats, dogs, and cows.  Of course, Mama was ready.  She had towels packed in the truck.  We got back on the road and finally crossed the bridge and the island was in sight.  I thought it would be a good idea to stop by the road and get some fresh shrimp and so that is exactly what we did!  With shrimp in the cooler, we head for the house.  We drive up to the 3-story house and Bobo goes to the door and opens the door and waves a big Bobo wave and yells,  "Y'all come on.  We have arrived!"  I tell you; we unpack for an hour. Finally, we got settled.  Mama tackles the wet towels in the washing machine from the cute aquarium.  I start cooking the shrimp and grits.  Callie, Rob, and Mary Frances start unpacking the PlayStation and hooking it up.  Dan, being the private investigator that he is noticed that there were no sheets on the beds.  Then, the kids talk the Dan into taking them to the pool.  Dan and the kids get down to the pool and the code didn’t work.  Dan calls the realty company and tells the realtor lady that we need some sheets and a gate code that works.  The lady says that she would come over and bring sheets and check the pool gate code.  Meanwhile, Dan waits outside for the realty lady to come to our house.  In a few minutes, he sees her car ride by with a Coastal Realty sign on the side.  She pulls in at the house next door and Dan yells, "We are over here!"  She said, "Why are y’all over there?  She said this is your house and you got 30 minutes to get out of there!"  Bobo grabs hermit crabs and said, "Come on y'all!"  I get my pots and pans cleaned. Mama grabs the wet towels.  We unhooked the PlayStation and headed to our REAL vacation house…What a way to start a Vacation!

At this point, I end by saying that Mama is on a permanent vacation that is straight up PARADISE!  Let’s all try to live right and love, like Mama did, so we can see the cool stuff she is seeing right now!

Here is the last picture of me and Mama.  I love it and I sure did love my mama.

💙, 1965