Happy Birthday Martha! 02.29.16 on this Leap Day 2016
Happy Leap Day to one and all…we get an extra day to love! SMILE
I must send a shout out to my sweet baby sister…her name was Martha.
Martha Ann Smith Al-zeer…she was married to Ibi…he was from Saudi Arabia.
They met as college students and fell in love…they were a GREAT couple.
Martha was 1 year younger than me…and she was born on a leap day!
The only leap-year baby I have ever known! Another pisces, oh lawdy!!
She would be 15 today! I’ve known and loved her since high school…
I loved her Mama, her crazy Daddy Ed and even little brother and big sister.
Many a time, I turned into their driveway to visit and pick her up to go ride around.
That’s pretty much what you did in Monroe, GA, was ride around and listen to music.
I got to know Martha more when she lived in her Condo just outside of Atlanta.
We’d visit each time we came from Missouri to Georgia, our children loved playing in her pool…
You could always tell her place as each step going up had pots of beautiful flowers blooming!
Her home was always like a jungle…inside and out, sometimes even a HUGE raft could be found!
We got the pleasure of listening to her neighbors practice music quite often, it was Collective Soul.
She told me they were kinda religious guys, but sure were pretty and their music was kick ass!!!
Come to think of it, Martha was the one that turned me onto ZZ Top too! Down at Lynn Peters’ dads BBQ joint.
Martha and I always seemed to live many states apart, her in Georgia and then in Arizona and Florida, too.
I was in Florida, Colorado and then Missouri too. She came to visit us the most on the Bado farm in MO.
Her and sometimes we even got to play with her Daddy, Ed. He was quite the character, full of jokes and tales.
And when 2 crazy guys robbed and stabbed her at her condo door, she came to stay with us about a month or so.
It gave her time to heal, we loved having her there, were so thankful that she was tall and the stabs didn’t end her life.
Yes, she was very tall and I was very short, our weights always alternated between thick and thin but that was fine.
We loved each other with all our hearts, she loved Darlin’ too and loved all my children…she loved being Aunt Martha.
We were also pen pals and wrote crazy letters and postcards from all over the world to each other, about once a month.
She was thrilled when her and Ibi took their trip to Greece and many more countries, I can’t recall them all…Great fun!
She was living in FL, Boynton Beach the last letter I got from her…She went to sleep on her couch and never woke up.
An new angel was born. Her ashes were placed near her Mama…so she could forever hold her in her loving arms…
Her older sister, Joyce, let us have a few things that were hers. I am sitting here looking at her sunshine and moon box.
Only the sunshine on the bottom shows the true colors, the top and sides have worn down with use for many years now.
Darlin’ joined Martha as an angel in 2003…I think she loved him almost as much as I did…we were very close, I’d be happy to share.
So sweet girl, enjoy your birthday today, CRANK UP the tunes in heaven, hey, you’ve got the good musicians, let them play on.
Happy 15th birthday…I mean lordy, even my granddaughter, Sarah is older than you now!!! SMILE…you age quite well, my dear.
Thanks for all the crazy memories, all the love, laughter, music, hugs and tears we shared together! Thanks for being my best friend!
