10 things to love about Carol

1. She is a good cook. Whenever she is well enough to be up and around the kitchen, the down home Iowa cooking is here to nourish anyone who visits. Macaroni and cheese from scratch; pot roast with carrots and potatoes; roast chicken with mashed potatoes, gravy and dressing. Most of her cooking has happened in the last month as she has regained so much vitality post pneumonia. Lucky for our tummies!
2. She is chatty and plain spoken. If you spend any time with my mom, you don't have to wonder what is on her mind because you are hearing it! And she doesn't mince words. What you get from her is the real unedited deal.
3. She is a live wire! She has quite a dramatic streak, and she expressed this in her work in intense situations. She loved working as an emergency room nurse and as a paramedic. She knows how to use an adrenalin jolt and jump into the action.
4. She is full of surprises. She is an NRA member who doesn't own a gun. She volunteered for Nader in 2000, then voted for Bush because she didn't want to "throw her vote away". She watches Fox news whenever she gets a chance, but her favorite nightly ritual is to enjoy some "George Bush is a jackass" humor on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
5. She is a hard worker and proud of it. She worked as a hospital nurse in intensive care when I was small, and later she created a pioneering training course for paramedics in eastern Iowa. She and my dad were volunteer EMTs in the small town where we lived, so their free time was spent working and caring for people in medical emergencies. She has also done nursing in a state prison, a city jail, and several hospitals for veterans. Even though she is glad to be retired, I can tell she misses her work.
6. She is a healer. Anyone who has been on the receiving end of her care, knows that her hands are instruments of healing. The source of this gift is her deep compassion for those who are vulnerable and those who hurt. She has a special place in her heart for the very young and the very old. People in these groups who have crossed her path were very lucky indeed.
7. She has a huge, generous heart. She admired her grandfather Williamson because "he would give you the shirt off his back". My mom is the same way.
8. She is a good daughter. Before she came to stay with us, she was living with my grandma in southern Iowa. She has been there for my grandma and my great aunt as they have aged and needed more attention. She worries more about her mom's health than about her own, and she plans to kick the cancer so she can go home and care for my grandma.
9. She is brave and strong. Since she has been with us I have seen her weather difficulties that I didn't think she would survive. But she has survived, and now she is more than surviving. She is enjoying her life! Her strength comes from her faith, which tells her that she is loved and that she will be taken care of no matter what.
10. She is beautiful, inside and out. She was quite a knock-out when she was younger, and she has grown into her upper years gracefully. She is overflowing with love for her family and friends, and she absorbs love with easy abandon. This, I believe, is what keeps her brown eyes laughing, lovely and bright.