Gone but not forgotten. Now at 62 and with grandchildren I can see things come full circle. Life is about making good memories and you, Dad and your families did that!

As my luck would have it, my damn computer scanner that I have used thousands of times is not scanning now or I would put the documents up here for you. :(

Going through Mom's safe deposit contents that NO ONE HAS SEEN, I find a couple interesting documents.

There is the Hospital Birth Certificate (the one with the baby foot print) certifying that HAROLDENE THERESE MALERICH was born in St. Joseph's Hospital, Lewiston Idaho at 1:45 PM on Oct 15, 1926.

Then there is the Certificate of Birth from the State of Idaho, Department of Public Welfare, Bureau of Vital Statistics with it.This is the legal document. It has the same info as the Birth Certificate with one little difference...her name! It is listed as PANCHIETA MALERICK! It was lined out and a change to PANCHITA REGINA THERESE MALERICH was typed in.

Now here is where it gets funny, On 11/6/1985 her Dad (Pops) Barney Malerich recieved a response from the State of Idaho, Dept of Health and Welfare. Here is what it said:" Dear Mr. Malerich, We recieved your request regarding the correction of your daughter's birth certificate. In July of 1943 an uncle, DON M GREIF signed an affidavit correcting your daughters name from Panchieta Malerick to Panchita Regina Therese Malerich. Since we can amend the same item only once, we will be unable at this time to correct her name"...bla, bla, bla... it also appeard that they had her Mothers Imogene's name wrong on the certificate too as it was recorded as Irma Gene Grief. Where do they find these people who work there?

Now before Mom passed in the hospital, I asked her about this. She had asked Uncle Don to do that as she was living with them from what I understand. There is a mysterious gap in that time window and connection to St. John WA where she lived for a brief time. Mom had written on the envelope that had this information in it, "Panchita to Haroldene, what kind of improvement is that!"

As far as I know, from 1943 to her death in 2013 her name was legally still Panchita Regina Therese Malerich-Carson! But we all knew her as Chic or Mom.

Mom thought this pirate looked like my son (her grandchild) Chad! LOL

Pops (Barney) and Mom (Chic) would do a LOT of globe trotting. Pops would take his daughters on cruises and flights to Europe very often.

...and we think we have it rough! You had to be tough back in these days!

I actually remember driving with Pops and my brothers in Pops 1950 Ford to the city where his Mother was (Grangville, Cottonwood?) and meeting her a couple times. Pops would drive us up to the top of Steptoe Butte which I revisited for the first time in 45 years this past summer on my motorcycle.

I remember this picture taken like it was yesterday. Jeez Dad was in great shape! There I am at her right side.

We would all anticipate Dad coming home to the summer lake cabin on Loon Lake in Morgan Park. As soon as he got there he would change into his suit and we would all go to the beach where he would run up onto the dock without breaking stride and dive off the end. It was a ritual almost!

I look at this picture and wonder how parents manage large familys like the Hansen's, the Greifs, etc? Reflecting now as a grandparent I must say it was with great patients, love and extreme organization skills...and the occasional swat on the ass!

Now they don't have to worry about anything as they are in Heaven together now.

This would be a picture of Mom at high school graduation.

Now that Mom has passed away and I look at her car, I have to reflect on the many times I looked at it in a different way.

I can not begin to tell you how many times I would get "the phone call" to come save her as she had locked her keys in the car! Once or twice, ok but we were up to probably a dozen this past couple years. I found myself getting a little irritated by this and even bought her a magnetic key storage device to put underneath the car which she never used. She said, "How in the hell am I supposed to get on the ground and be able to reach that?"

With time, my irritation turned to laughter. I would stop everything I was doing no matter what time of the day it was, chuckle to myself and say, "Ok Mom, I will be right there."

Then there were the numerous, yes numerous impacts to her car! She kept a family friend in business repairing her car that things would magically find their way to hit it! ;) The most recent being this past summer when she pulled into our driveway and hit my sport car damaging the fiberglass. I never had the heart to tell her but offered my suggestion later in car discussions that she might start thinking about giving up the keys as her father (Pops) did. That is another story in itself!

I guess besides being her oldest son, I was also her Superman to the rescue.

My Mom is such a wonderful person. She always put her Children and family first. Growing up in the Carson house meant you had to wait your turn most of the time and with five older brothers, it could took a while. I was no stranger to this concept. Mom always tried to pace herself and we were willing to wait (most times). In those rare moments when you finally got some one-on-one time with her, she had a knack of making you feel like the most important kid on earth. I remember being about 8 years old when my brothers left with Dad somewhere. My Mom and I sat in her room, talked, watched an Andy Williams Christmas special, and ate homemade peanut brittle. It was the best peanut brittle I ever ate and I'm sure it was because she was the best mom ever and made me feel so special in her life. She had a way of doing this all through my life and I'm sure all the Carson boy's feel the same way.