Barbara Oehlbeck has lovingly portrayed her mother, and in a greater sense every mother of her era, especially of the South, in Mama: Root, Hog, or Die.

A gifted storyteller, Oehlbeck, called “Youngest Daughter,” has artistically in prose and photographs patched together quilt-like the life and times of “Mama,” Nancy Halsey Harding, from her birth as a “liberated” woman in a cold back bedroom of the coldest winter on record in Grayson County, Virginia through her married life in Henry County, Virginia.

Glenn Harding was a devoted husband and father, who worked full time at a furniture factory and in after hours and weekends ran a motorcycle and fix-it shop and a farm, of which the latter two Nancy co-ran.

Yet he was willingly overshadowed by Mama—picking up people and pieces of life without ever looking back or giving up. Never idle, she cooked from scratch, sewed all the family’s clothes, tended her garden, from which she canned everything, grew beautiful flowers, while taking in stray animals and even, on occasion, children, and making toys for children at Christmas.

To Youngest Daughter’s endless questions, Mama, who had an intuitive knowledge of how to do things, taught by example, “Just look, real good. You learn by lookin’.”

Never wasting anything, Mama was always happiest when making something from almost nothing. Scraps of clothing variously became a table cloth or quilts. Admonished about the hungry little children in China, the children ate all on their plates. Compost was utilized long before green became politically correct.

Mama mothered many hungry kids, who just happened by from time to time, but one, Ricky, found that secret door to her heart and was invited in. Ricky, who lived on the back side of the hill for at least half a dozen years, defended his trespassing enroute to school, by saying, “I mostly wanted to smell somethin’ good to eat comin’ out your back door.” Indeed, even hobos smelled their way to her kitchen.

She loved flowers, plants and gardens in general. “Pink Vi’lets” presents Mama’s gift on her wedding day to a young woman, who had to have pink violets to go with her petal pink bridal dress. Hers was the only such flowers, seen by the bride-to-be in the dormer window.

“Soup Beans” relates a family tradition—passing on a recipe. Youngest Daughter, now living in Florida, is given all the instructions on cooking soup beans for “him,” her son-in-law. And finally the passing on of the old bean pot, with the promise that it will get the best of care.

Her lifelong dogged determination was for freedom—to do what she needed to do and wanted to do. So, she did until a stroke left her crippled—her lifelong fear—and unconscious for three agonizing months in a hospital until she “went away,” her surviving husband being unable to say she’d died.

Mama was not given to praise or apology, but on meeting her son-in-law, Dr. Luther W.Oehlbeck, she exclaimed, “Well, you finally done somethin’ worthwhile.”

Barbara Oehlbeck in Mama has again done something worthwhile. It is a delightful book, which will remind you of your mother and grandmother. It is a page turner you will not want to put down. You must read this book.

Mama: Root, Hog or Die contains 359 pages and numerous photographs. It can be obtained from Barbara Oehlbeck, 25075 Grassy Run, LaBelle, FL 33935, telephone 863-675-2771.

April 30, 2008