Gary Greene’s Memories from an Old Hunter……….#14
For those of you that have recently lost someone dear to you, I am sorry. I have also lost a big part of my life as well. Just days ago, Lorraine Greene, my 92 year old mother passed away. This is just a portion of the more complete eulogy that I presented at her wake.
Lorraine Greene (90) with our lab puppy Scmiddy, who is named after her. (2014)
My mom was a lady who had a great sense of humor. My dad didn’t possess that trait, so I am assuming I got my personality from my mother. I recall one Easter morning, waking up to authentic rabbit droppings all over our home……it was my mom’s way of letting me know the Easter Bunny had arrived with my hidden baskets. My mom also was a very strong willed individual that wore her feelings on her sleeve.
While my dad introduced me to hunting, it was my mother that instilled in me the appreciation of nature and the love of the great outdoors. My mom always wanted to be outside and I share that same desire. I heard her say it a hundred times: “I hate being cooped up in this apartment, let’s take a walk.”
If you lived in Greendale from 1981 to 2014 and saw a 60 progressing to a 90 year old woman hiking around your neighborhood, there’s a real good chance that you saw my mother. At a decent pace for any age, she would walk from one to two hours a day.
She also instilled in me, the love of man’s best friend. As I grew up, we had numerous hunting and family dogs. My wife and I currently have five labs, but my mom’s favorite was our ten year old, matriarch Hershey. At her assisted living home, her eyes always lit up when I brought Hershey into her room. We breed our own labs, and we named our last pup “Schmiddy” after my mom’s maiden name. Before I was born, my parents tried to make money by breeding English Springer Spaniels. I’ve been told they had over twenty at one time and ended up giving away some pups, as that money maker didn’t materialize.
At their new home in Franklin, Lorraine with one of their kennel full of Springers. (1946)
Truth be told, I probably hunted more with my mother than I did with my father. My first memory of a hunt is from my mom’s shoulders, as we watched my dad shoot a pheasant and our Chesapeake King with the retrieve. As I mentioned in a previous memory, in her late 20’s, she gave up the gun, but she still enjoyed the hunt. Before we could drive, she escorted my hunting buddies and me on many short hunting trips and she was always entertained watching the dogs work as we pushed the Waterford pheasant fields. She constantly had some sort of candy in her pocket to share with us boys. It became expected of her to bring sweets. That continued with my young sons as they received candy on all their walks with grandma.
Until the last few years, my mom relished preparing and eating wild game. I would drop off pheasants and ducks for her to make for herself and her friends. Using my Grandmother Elsie’s recipes, she was an excellent cook. Her specialties were her mustard pickles, dill pickles, German potato salad and of course bakery.
My mom adored fishing and at 90, she was still dropping a line. She didn’t have the strength to pull a blue gill out of the water, but she still enjoyed the act. She cherished using her father’s three piece cane pole. In the 1940s and 1950s, her and my dad regularly fished at Winterburn’s Lodge in Three Lakes. They also treasured a 1956 fishing trip to Canada and the Wolf River Walleye runs of the 1950s and 1960s. When my sons were young, at a small fishing hole in Genesee Depot, my mom and I would help the boys with their fishing tackle. She fondly remembered when my son Nate (3) fell in that pond, and after I pulled him out, he immediately stated: “I think I saw the Little Mermaid.” She liked that story. In 1958, we took a duck hunting trip to Canada and more times than I can remember, as a family we hunted the pheasants in nearby Muskego.
As I highlighted in a previous memory (#8), my mom became an accomplished artist. Most of her acrylic paintings were completed on old mink stretching boards or old saws. She was a prolific painter and 90% of her work was nature related. She brought her admiration of wildlife to her paintings. I still have nearly twenty of her works hanging from my home’s walls. She displayed her work at numerous art fairs and really enjoyed sharing her passion. For a time, I carved decoys and would sell my work a long side my mother. So again, I am assuming whatever artistic or creative skills I have, I inherited from my mother. My sons Ty and Nate were under ten at the time, and they enjoyed helping grandma sell her paintings. My mom loved my sons as much as a grandmother could love a child. My sons have fond memories of visiting grandma. Many times, around her neighborhood, she would take the boys out for a walk: “Because we got to get outside.”
In Canada, Lorraine and a stringer of her walleyes. Note the wood ribbing of the boat. (1956)
I became a fairly good athlete, playing my way through college. My mom was my biggest fan. As a young girl, she was an outstanding athlete, and as well as anyone, she understood all aspects of baseball, basketball and football. She cherished the Packer glory years of the 1960s and she particularly appreciated Brett Favre’s passion for the game. Once more, I assume my skills and interests came from my mother.
Near the end, usually my mom was not mindful of her surroundings. The second last day I visited my mom, hoping it might make her more aware, I brought along her favorite dog Hershey. As she saw Hershey she became more alert. She went on to mumble some words, and we did exchange the words…………”I love you mom!” and “I love you Gary!”
In closing, I believe the best compliment I can give my mother is that I was always proud of her. I would like to state that my mom, Lorraine Frieda Elisabeth Greene was one hell of woman, a fighter and she loved the outdoors. I want to thank her for all that she did for me in my lifetime.