Honoring Mothers, is honoring our God who created them
to be the procreators of all human existence & experience.

Honoring our Father & Mother is the only profound directive with prominent blessing
attached instantly to its authoritative mandate.

For those who honor; God pronounces: that their days maybe long.
Long days, speaks not of a long life specifically,
but of a life that is effective, influential, impactful, efficient & impressive.

Who wouldn’t want that aura added to their life?
The solution is so simple; we just need to be Honoring our Father and Mother.

There are two categories of mothers in my heart experience.

There are mothers who are our biological mothers & there are mothers in deed.
Mothers in deed, are those who take the burden & joy of offspring in their hearts,
and embrace to their soul the needs of those God has brought into their life.

I have five Mothers I want to give honorable recognition too.

Marjorie Mae Midkiff July 19 1922 to March 1986

My Mother was an amazing woman who had 3 children by her 19th birthday.
That’s called starting early & she was a true over achiever.
I didn’t arrive until she was 27 & she made it clear to me that I was an accident.
I think that qualifies me as positively special & she made me always feel that way.

My Mom had incredible verbal skills & made her voice recognized in all public settings.
My mother had an intense love for everyone but was never shy about sharing the truth
in a direct, memorable, yet loving manner.

My Mom fought cancer with a stoic boldness. She had a double radical mastectomy
when I was 9 years old. It was intensely painfully for her and physically embracing was
never comfortable to her after that surgical procedure.

She was a very competent sales lady at the downtown Bon Marche for many years.
It was a rich joy for me to take the bus down from our home in the Roosevelt District
and she’d give me some quarters when I visited her work to buy a milkshake and fries
at the hamburger shop on the ground floor of the Bon.

After years of declining health my Mom stepped into eternity in a battle with colon cancer.

Marjorie Midkiff Miller 1942 to 1963

My sister Marjorie was 8 years older then me & was super organized. She worked at a
donut shop in Lake City & was very thrifty & seemed to know how to save every nickel.

She had rich red hair & was gorgeous inside & out. It was always a treat to visit her little
bungalow in Lake City. She would let me play with her collection of silver dollars which
she added to every payday. She was immensely generous & always gave me her extra
change & even a couple of silver dollars.

Marjorie was killed just as she was turning 21 in a tragic auto wreck on Stevens Pass.
Her husband Larry hit the avalanche tunnels at the summit in a snowstorm on Thanksgiving.
The odd thing about it all is Larry was a heavy equipment operator & had assisted in building
those avalanche tunnels just a few years before he hit them.

Marjorie was due to have their first child in a few days after the car accident.
She had a room in their home on Harbor Island all prepared for this new bundle of love
in her womb.

I’ve always felt robbed that she would sneak into glory with her baby so abruptly.
I remember in my youth studying every red headed girl I saw to see if the beautiful
face of my sister would just come back. It was as if someone had stuck a pin in my
heart leaving a wound that would never heal.

Blanche Stickney Newton 1899 to 1981

Blanche Stickney Newton was my wonderful grandmother. Her memory is rich with
warm hugs & twice weekly visits to our home. The first thing she did, when she arrived,
was to sit at our piano & play hymns, singing with enthusiastic volume.
After that she would sit in my Mom’s vibrating therapeutic lounge chair & sing more hymns,
with a significant quiver in her vocals.

She always wanted me to pray along with her, which she did every time she visited.
It was a challenge to pray with her, because she was a boisterous prayer warrior,
who when I attempted to verbalize my prayers, would say; praise Jesus!!! so loud,
that it disrupted my simplistic thought train.

Needless to say she had a boiling hot intense love for Jesus. She served at the Bread of Life
mission for many decades & would faithfully gather food for their kitchen, play the piano for their meetings, lead the singing & even preach about her loving Savior from the pulpit.

She would have me come with her & got me to speak from the podium many times.
She would sit in rapt attention as I spoke yelling praise Jesus as I shared, even though
I’m confident that my novice offerings were ridiculous & boring.
I was the greatest to her, when in reality she was the true greatest of all time to me.

Amelia M. Stickney 1869 to 1947

Amelia M. Stickney is my great grandmother who lived near the corner of 228th and
the Bothell Everett Hwy.
My Great Grandfather built the house for her in 1904 on their homestead in Canyon Park.
The house is still standing amazingly which is a credit to his construction.
He had a sawmill where the Bank of America now stands on 228th

Amy Stickney 1901 to 1983

Amy Stickney was my great aunt and a English teacher at Bothell High School for over 30 years.
She taught English to my Mom & Dad in the 1930s. She also taught English to my sister
Nancy Stroud who graduated from BHS in 1957.

I was a lousy English student, so my Dad would drive me to Aunt Amy’s twice a week for
English & Lit tutoring.
Aunt Amy patiently instructed my rebellious brain dead soul week after week with compelling
tenacity.
Aunt Amy wrote a wonderful history of Bothell called Squak Slough.
Amy never married but after the death of her brother she accepted the responsibility
of raising his 5 orphaned children while continuing her teaching profession.
Aunt Amy had amazing chutzpah & an enthusiastic & entertaining motivator in my life.
She was a gifted mother in deed.

To these dear Mothers in my life I wish honor from my heart as they rest together in
pioneer cemetery in Bothell.

They now join hands in glory with God’s peace & joy as their crown.