Marion Josephine Melton

My mother was born and raised on a small British island in the North Atlantic Ocean called Bermuda on March 11, 1935. When my mother was asked where she was from she would always reply truthfully and say Hamilton Bermuda. People would always reply back - “Oh the Bahamas” My mother would answer “No.” - “That’s an island in the Caribbean.” My mother would answer “No.” - “Oh cool! Are you serious? You were born in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle.” My mother would say “That’s close enough.”

When my mother was three years old she went swimming in the bright blue clear waters of Bermuda. Days later my mother and about a dozen other people who had gone swimming in the same area came down with a disease called Polio. Apparently cruise ships were dumping their waste in water people had been swimming in. Polio twisted and deformed my mother’s right arm. For the rest of her life she lived with a useless right arm that flopped around whenever she walked.

When my mother was 22 years old she was working in a bookstore called THE BERMUDA BOOKSTORE. One day an American sailor who was station on a naval station in Hamilton Bermuda walked in met my mother fell in love with her and married her 5 years later. My father was then transferred to another island called Hawaii. My mother spent the next 20 years being a military wife. Traveling from base to base. She was a stay at home wife. She cooked, cleaned, sewed, knitted, read books and chased after a couple of bad boys who grew up to be good loving sons.

1987 life changed for my mother. My mother and father separated. She packed her bags and moved to Nashville, Tennessee where she spent the rest of her life. My mother hadn’t worked since she was 25. At the age of 52 she applied for a job at La Petite Academy and for the next 32 and a half years she was a preschool teacher. She finally retired when she was 85 years old in 2020 around the time of Covid.

My mother’s life started to slow down after that. She still cooked, cleaned, sewed, knitted, read books and hung out with a couple of bad boys who grew up to be good loving sons.

But mostly she spent the afternoons taking long naps and watching t.v. She loved to watch and root for the Titans football team. She discovered the western channel and started to watch westerns. Her favorites were GUNSMOKE, BONANZA, and CHEYENNE. One day she was flipping through the channels and discovered; god help us all, FOXNEWS and became a fan of Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingram.

My mother was one of the lucky ones she never did get Covid. But she did start having mini strokes, congestive heart failure and cellulitis. My mother passed away peacefully on July 20, 2024.

Over the years my mother’s parents, three brothers and my father passed away.

My mother was survived by a couple of bad boys who grew up to be good loving sons. She has a couple of grand kids. She has a daughter-in-law. She has a sister who lives in Alabama she also has a couple of nieces and nephews and great nieces and great nephews.

Bye mama. We love you so very much.