My beloved mother, Paula Lillian Bailey, passed away on August 1st.  I miss her terribly.  I was fortunate enough to visit with her the weekend before her beautiful soul found its peace.  She was so happy to see me and to learn how happy I am with my new love, Patti.  I am grateful she's finally free from the horrible pain she was in, though I would give anything to have another day with her.

She was very proud of my writing and visited my web site from time to time.  I wanted to share my beautiful mom and she so enjoyed sharing her pictures that I felt it fitting to make this web page for her...to share my mom.

Her parents named her Lillian Maureen but when she was baptized, the priest didn't feel Lillian was Catholic enough and renamed her Paula.  It stuck.

This is my mother with her mother, Mary.  My grandfather was off to war when she was born.

The back of this photo says Jul 7 1942

Here's my grandmother proudly holding up her sleeping baby girl.  These pictures were taken to send to my grandfather, who was in the Army fighting in World War II.

This one says September 21, 1942.  Mom was a terror on wheels even then.

Another picture of her with her relatives.

Ah, the good old days, when it was fine to let a toddler stand on a chair.

This picture is dated Spring 1943.  On the back of this picture, she wrote:

This was before I could walk.  Right after we moved this is one of the back porches.  See what a mess the yard was in.  It don't look like that now.  I got a clothing pin in my mouth.

This photo has a handwritten note that says Paula's first birthday, March 15, 1942.

This is my mom with her great-grandmother.

This is Mom with her bonnet.  On the back of this picture, she wrote:

Grandma make my bonnet.  I sure like it.  I want it on every time I see it and then I don't want it off.  This is Uncle Frank's car.  I got the box the film came in.

Here she is with her mother, a grandmother, and a great-grandmother.  I believe the third woman is an aunt or great-aunt.

This is my mom with her father, Charles.

This is the only picture I could find of her with her father and paternal grandmother.

Another pic of my mom with her great-grandmother.

Here she is with one of her grandfathers.  I'm not sure which one.

The back of this picture says May 30th, 1943.  Mom was 14 1/2 months old.

She never outgrew that haircut.

See?  Her bangs never went where she wanted them to.

Except for this one photo which knowing my mother's thin hair must have required six cans of hair spray.

This is either her graduation or a confirmation robe.  Not sure which.  If the picture had been in color, I would have sworn it was my sister and not my mother.

There she is, third from the left.

Second from the right.

And right smack dab in the middle.

She's third from the right.

This is my mom in 1987 when she came to see me in my first apartment.

This is the last photo of my mother with her sisters and parents.  Mom's on the left in the back row.  See how she never outgrew that haircut?

She met this bloke and married him six weeks later.  See the little devil tattoo?

This is the happy couple over 35 years later.  Like two peas in a pod.

Mom, Dad and me.  See the little devil tattoo again?  Notice the Christmas decorations still up in the summer. <g>  Oh, those are pumpkin lights from the previous Halloween.  This was either 2002 or 2003.  Mom and I stayed up all night chatting when they came to see my house.

Mom on her 64th birthday on March 15, 2006.  She was very happy that day despite her circumstances.  That was my mom.  She always tried to see the best in everything.