“Only time and eternity will reveal how much I love you.” is a line mother often wrote on her cards and letters.

We have evidence of how much she and dad loved me, Lori, and Glenn. We were recipients of piano, guitar, violin and voice lessons; tons of toys at Christmas; always had nice, new clothes; the best medical and dental care San Angelo could provide; plenty of excellent home cooked food; boy/girl scout and church camp trips with supplies and uniforms; attended church; unconditional love; lovely vacations; cars; a job at dad’s station; assistance raising kids and grandkids; jewelry; a safe, loving Christian home; support; advice; prayer; cards and letters; calls; photos; cookbooks; money to put down on a house; new bedroom furniture; dishes; never mistreated; . I’ve seen times when they’d go without so we’d have plenty.

Raymond and Nanetta Allison worked diligently for over 50 years each to provide for their family members while living in a 2 bedroom $8000 home.

December of 2001 mother was bed-ridden from a heart attack. Dad and I spent some time together. 2 am Dec. 21 he seemed in a lot of pain so I took him to the emergency room. The next day or so he took every dollar he had in his wallet and sent me to WalMart to buy more Christmas presents for his grandkids. Come Christmas, mother’s in bed from heart failure and daddy’s in the hospital with cancer. It was a lonely Christmas… 2 days later we’re discussing burying him.

I can still hear him singing…

Some glad morning when this life is o'er, I'll fly away;
To a home on God's celestial shore, I'll fly away (I'll fly away).

I'll fly away, Oh Glory
I'll fly away; (in the morning)
When I die, Hallelujah, by and by,
I'll fly away (I'll fly away).

When the shadows of this life have gone, I'll fly away;
Like a bird from prison bars has flown, I'll fly away (I'll fly away).

I'll fly away, Oh Glory
I'll fly away; (in the morning)
When I die, Hallelujah, by and by,
I'll fly away (I'll fly away).

Just a few more weary days and then, I'll fly away;
To a land where joy shall never end, I'll fly away (I'll fly away).

I'll fly away, Oh Glory
I'll fly away; (in the morning)
When I die, Hallelujah, by and by,
I'll fly away (I'll fly away).


December of 2007 mother and I tried to find someone to paint their house for a reasonable price; couldn’t, so I went to San Angelo to paint. Mother fixed dinner every night; even though she had a broken arm, detached retina and more aches and pains “than you could shake a stick at”. She fixed Christmas dinner for us. No one came; it was just us. We had more than enough food for 12 people, and she fixed it all; pies, dressing, smoked turkey, candied yams, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, and more. Mother spent every last dime she had that Christmas on that meal and on presents for great grandkids and others.

I remember she’d take us to the Warren Drug soda fountain, the drive-in, Shakey’s Pizza, church, Charcoal House, San Angelo rodeo, Underwood BBQ, Collin St. Bakery, our Christmas stockings filled with candy and coins, Easter baskets, and she'd write “Only time and eternity will reveal how much I love you.”…

Below is the last letter written by mother to some friends:

Sat Dec 29, 2007

Dear Bonnie and Marshall,

Please forgive me for being so long in writing. My life as I knew it is over.

I was in the hospital with a heart attack when Raymond got sick. Kelly was here with him, and he brought him in to the ER. They admitted him, and it was the cancer back. He only lived six days. I did not get to tell him goodbye. He passed away early on the 27th. I did put up the little tree that Kelly bought that year; the first one in several years. December has been a long month.

I had a heart cath in 2002 and had a stroke during the cath. I have nerve damage in my left side. Had triple bypass in 2003. Spent six months at Mertlewood Estates; an assisted living place. Hated every minute of it. Finally after running out of money, I moved back home. Have been on a walker and wheel chair ever since.

It has been over 4 years since I’ve seen Glenn. His oldest daughter abused my credit cards. I did have to file charges to get part of my money back at the bank. I do not know where she is. They will not tell me, because he has disowned me and tells them if they come around me he will do the same to them. I saw Heather’s little girl when she was born before I got so sick; haven’t seen her since. She will be four in January. They live with Glenn. Hannah has three children.

I have a lady that comes in 3.5 hours a day to help me. A nurse comes twice a week to do all my vitals. Had a pretty bad fall earlier this year. Have a detached retina in my left eye and a broken left arm. Kelly wanted me to fly to Dallas for Thanksgiving but couldn’t because of my eye.

Lori and Michael are still living in Gardnerville , Nevada . She sold all her horses. They did have their big house up for sale but hasn’t sold as yet. It is so cold up there. Her daughter Sarah lives there also. She has two beautiful little girls and a boy is due in March. Her son Jeremy lives in Atchison , Kansas . He has Shawn and Serena; full custody. He married on Raymond’s birthday, April 7th last year. She had two children. Cody is in ??? age 18-19. Paige is 16 and lives with them in Kansas .

Kelly and Carrie are still in The Colony. He is working at Raytheon (misspelled I’m sure); lots of hours. He is here working even more; fixing my fence and painting my house. It took him three days to scrape it; pretty bad shape. It was in pretty bad shape. Started spraying yesterday and it broke. Had to go buy another one. I’m so sorry he has to do this for me. Raymond did not have life insurance when he died. I do not have any either. I did not have a clue that he had dropped the insurance.

I have two sisters younger than I who have been pretty ill. June, one of the twins, has had several surgeries and heart trouble. Alice just older than her just had a kidney transplant. She is better.

Hope this finds you all well and happy. Thank you so much for the pictures. You have a very beautiful family. Tell all “Hello”!

If you are ever here please call or drop by.

Guess I had better get busy as this place gets in a busy mess as the week ends.

In Christ
Love and prayers

Nan Allison

Please don’t envy me my beautiful stationary.

Daddy’s clichés, rhymes:
- It'll feel better when it quits hurting.
- ...tough row to hoe.
- sweets for the sweet!
- The couple next door must be playin' checkers. She said, "Make one more move like that and I'll crown you."
- Why did Santa have a garden? So he could hoe, hoe, hoe.
- You want a knuckle sandwich?
- Fill 'er up? Put a tiger in your tank.
- when dressing grand children for bed; taking off their shirt say, "Skin a monkey"
- raise your hand above a grandchild bringing your hand closer say, "Great big hawk, sailing in the air. Goin a get (name) right down there." and tickle them.
- Now you're cookin' with gas.
- Bugs don't bite this month. They might bite you, but they won't bite this month.
- When bugs get on your food, just knock them off. They didn't eat that much!
- She’s not the only fish in the sea
- till the cows come home.
- she's my better half.
- I'm not asleep; I'm just resting my eyes.
- It's a great life if you don't weaken.
- ...those'll stunt your growth.
- another day another dollar; 50 cents for me, 50 cents for uncle sam
- ...is good for what ails ya.
- See ya later alligator. After while crocodile.
- "To bed, to bed," said Sleepyhead.
"Let's stay awhile," said Slow.
"Let's put on the pot," said Greedy Gut, "and sup before we go."
- Tough titty said the kitty, but the milk's still good.
- Crocodile tears
- Day late and a dollar short
- Don’t take any wooden nickels
- Went fish’n, barefoot, Wore my old gran’pa’s shoes; Climbed up in the hickory tree to get some walnuts. The limb broke and I fell right down straddle a barbed wire fence, both feet on the same side.
- Is it soup, yet
- Raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock
- Bye, baby bunting
Daddy's gone a hunting
To get a little rabbit skin
To wrap his baby bunting in
- No way, Jose
- Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin (3 little pigs)
- There’s more than one way to skin a cat
- What’s cookin good lookin?
- Why buy the cow when the milk is free?
- I love you a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck
- Help me Lord. That woman that you gave me, Lord...
- And the infamous, “Hubba, Hubba”

Often before they died, mother and daddy would call me at 6am on my birthday and sing happy birthday to me. Seems I kept them up the night I was born; and maybe a time or two after that...

Mother’s advice, idioms, metaphores and clichés (she loved these):
- filled to the gill…
- …enough food to feed an army.
- Call me crazy, but…
- Bless your pea-pickin' heart!
- I/We/You have bigger fish to fry...
- smooth move, Exlax
- something crawled up your butt and died; Slim
- thank God for small blessings...
- that dressing I ate is talkin' back at me.
- he's goin' a bust hell wide open...
- I'm not just talkin' to hear myself talk.
- ...up one side of me and down the other...
- between you, me and the fence post...
- ...doesn't amount to a hill of beans.
- nip it in the bud.
- sleep like a rock
- Six of one half a dozen of another.
- He squealed like a pig caught under a gate.
- It bled like a stuck pig.
- I'm goin' get your ripty diddle.
- I don't have two nickels to rub together.
- I don't trust him as far as I can throw him.
- You can get glad in the same pants you got mad in.
- I see the moon, the moon sees me. God made the moon and God made me.
- shut the door barny.
- San Angelo 6 inch rain = 6 inches between the drops
- little hellions...
- ...holler up a storm...
- I'll give you 3 guesses and the first 2 don't count
- mornin' sunshine
- mornin' glory
- ...a dime a dozen.
- he doesn't have an honest bone in his body.
- he's as worthless as the day is long.
- I'll tell you which side of the fence the cow ate the grass on.
- I can't take you anywhere.
- His wife rules the roost.
- I could do it in my sleep
- I'm T-A-R-D; tard...
- we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
- I can't win for losing.
- I'm too pooped to pop.
- I'm goin' to finish this if it's the "last thing I do".
- He doesn't know his butt from a hole in the ground.
- He's deaf in one ear and can't hear out of the other.
- ...famous last words.
- I'm just wasting my breath with you.
- I've repeated myself till I'm blue in the face.
- my tail feathers are draggin'
- I have to keep him on a short leash.
- little pots have big ears.
- honey, they saw you comin'...
- I'm up to my elbows in...
- That's easy for you to say!
- ...nickel and dime me to death.
- It takes two to tango.
- I'm gonna slap you into the middle of next week.
- He can't find his butt with both hands.
- be careful what you wish for; you might get it...
- wet behind the ears
- You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar
- skin you alive
- too big for your britches
- sick and tired of being sick and tired...
- screaming bloody murder
- ...no spring chicken...
- money doesn't grow on trees
- like a fish needs a bicycle...
- your eyes are bigger than your stomach.
- dead as a doornail
- deaf as a fence post
- blind as a bat
- bone to pick
- bit off more than you can chew.
- beggars can't be choosers
- ...at my wit’s end.
- All hat and no cattle
- ...you got ants in your pants?
- ... tied to his mother’s apron strings.
- He doesn't have the sense God promised a piss ant.
- You can't beat that with a stick.
- full as a tick.
- Live in hope or die in despair.
- The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.
- ...as full of sh*t as a Christmas turkey
- What's that got to do with the price of tea in China?
- ...making a mountain out of a mole hill.
- ...haven't got a pot to piss in...
- crooked as a dog's hind leg.
- ...two shakes of a lambs tail...
- ...so hungry I could eat a horse.
- Consider the source and forget about it.
- ...and that's not the end of the story, either.
- We'll be there; the Good Lord willing and the creek don't rise.
- come hell or high water...
- ...I'll dance at your wedding with bells on...
- He knows which side his bread is buttered on.
- The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
- ...not worth a plug nickel.
- Beauty is only skin deep.
- ...that split-tail girl...
- ...trouble is his middle name.
- ...got up on the wrong side of the bed...sleepy head
- more trouble than you can shake a stick at.
- cut off your nose to spite your face.
- Like a bad penny, he keeps coming back.
- Put a cork in it.
- What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
- You can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip
- Colder than a well digger’s butt in December
- Couldn’t pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel
- Hay is for horses
- I’m going to wash your mouth out with soap. They really did this when mother and daddy were kids; lye soap.
- People in hell want ice water, too
- He’ll be late for his own funeral
- Crazy like a fox
- Don’t count your chickens before they hatch
- Drive like a drunk Indian (a product of the time they grew up in)
- Haven’t got a penny to my name
- He couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn
- Hell in a hand basket
- I promise with God as my witness...
- I wasn’t born yesterday even if my face is red.
- He’s a jack of all trades and a master of none
- A leopard doesn’t change its spots
- Birds of a feather flock together.
- Running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off
- Lipstick on a pig
- Madder than a wet hen
- Naked as a jaybird
- ...as quiet as a church mouse.
- South end of a north bound burrow
- But for the grace of God, go I
- With my luck when my ship comes in it’ll be a garbage scow
- With my luck when my ship comes in, I’ll be at the airport
- A watched pot never boils
- When pigs fly
- You’re known by the company you keep
- You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear
- I’m going to kill you and tell God you died.
- Hotter than a firecracker on the 4th of July
- If I had a nickel for every time...
- If you get bit by a snapping turtle, it won't let go until there is thunder!

When frustrated (with us), she called us by our first and middle names; Glenn Ray, Kelly Andrew, Lori Jean...

Mother and daddy met at church when she was just 13. “When was beef the highest?” Raymond asks Nanetta, “When the cow jumped over the moon!” They saw each other from time to time after that. Daddy drove a 1936 Ford pickup. Grandmother often sent Aunt Jean along to chaperone them. They were just kids having grown up during and after the Great Depression; often going to bed hungry.

July 31, 1948 they married in Tyler, TX. The morning after they married daddy’s father woke mother up and demanded she iron his shirt. Daddy told him no; that’s not her job. Mother started high school to finish her senior year; she's in the yearbook. However pregnancy with Glenn interrupted that plan; Spring 1949. Mother worked as a waitress for a while. One day she waited on a table where the young men made her work hard. When they left she discovered they had left her a penny for a tip. She took the penny, caught up to them and said, “Here, you left this. I’m sure you’ll need this more than me.” She was a little upset.

A few years after the marriage, they separated for a few months. Dad was drafted and became an Army cook. Even when he got out he continued to cook; cinnamon rolls, SOS, stew, fried fish… He loved making homemade ice cream, eating watermelons and frying fish. He was very good at all three.

Daddy shined shoes as a boy. I have the box; shoes shined for 15 cents. His father (B.E. Allison) pulled him out of school in the 7th grade to work in the field. His mother (Ethel Elizabeth) died when he was 15. B.E. Allison was reportedly sleeping with a woman taking care of his mother after a surgery. Daddy confronted him, B.E. went after daddy with a gun, his mother tried to stop B.E. who then pushed her off the porch. She didn't recover. Daddy started working at a Gulf Station as a young man. He went to work for Carl Heckaman at a Humble/Enco station in San Angelo. Aunt Alice loved daddy. She’d go by his station sometimes after school and visit with him until he went home. He worked there until he was convinced to get his own Enco station which later became Exxon; on Knickerbocker. He stayed there for over 30 years. Exxon raised his rent too high. He left and took a Texaco station on Sherwood Way. 8000 gallons of gas in 1992 cost $9288.55. He grew and sold tons of okra from this station along with the gas. He started talking of retiring back in 1992. He worked here until he retired 1999; 2 years before he died. After he retired, he grew restless. Said he was thinking of getting a part time job; perhaps as a greeter at WalMart. He had prostate surgery in 1991. The cancer took his life in 2001.

Mother gave the speech as valedictorian in the eighth grade at Barnhart. Aunt Ethel made her a dress and Aunt Dora bought her a bra. Grandma wouldn’t let her wear the bra. Said she didn’t have anything to put in it. We have a picture of her in the dress which she signed, “With all of my love, Nanetta” and the original speech which has mother’s lip prints in lipstick. She was so excited that she kissed the speech.

Here’s the speech,…

Dear parents, relatives and friends. How truly glad we are to have you with us today. Inexperienced as we are in a world with which you are so familiar, we have already learned how useless to attempt to express the deepest feelings of the heart. We could not possibly put our immature thoughts into words, so why should we try? Men and women who know tell us there is no sweeter word than “welcome”, so we really want to say it to you; and say it in the right way.

So often the word has an empty, hollow sound. To some it means little. Without a ring of sincerity, it means nothing. To us, it means much, but the voice is unable to convey all the heart would say. Yet surely you have sensed our thoughts and feelings.

We cannot say all, but with deep sincerity we thank you; we take pride in your presence. We will do our best to express our gratitude.

I thank you once more for coming, and extend to you in the name of the class our most sincere welcome.

................................

Mother's picture in the dress is in the Allison's photo gallery titled "Nanetta Allison 8th grade graduation".