My Mom, Sylvia Lee (Alligood) Shavor was born on September 24, 1926 to parents Dewey & Thelma Alligood in a small medical center in Columbus, GA. She was raised as a city girl in Columbus but, summers were often spent with relatives in South Georgia in the company of her younger sister, Peggy.
She attended Jordan High School about the beginning of WW II, taking business courses and marching as a Majorette with the band. As the war heated up, Mom served as a Red Cross volunteer trying to help with the shortage of medical personnel.
Sometime after high school, she met a skinny basketball player from Richland, GA named E.P. Downer and they married soon after. E.P. went off to war as a sailor aboard the USS Braine. E.P. returned home in mid 1945 when his ship was badly damaged by Japanese aircraft. I came along in late 1946, also born in a medical center in Columbus.
By 1949, Mom and E.P. had divorced and she had met and married John Carlton Shavor, who would become and remain “the love of her life”. They would go on to enjoy 50 years of married life.
My sister, Manina, and brother John were born in the mid-50’s when the family lived in a small 2 bedroom home just off Forrest Road. By 1958, Carlton had found an opportunity to advance his career but, it meant the family had to relocate to the eastern shore of New Jersey.
My mother was a full time wife and mother to her three children. She enjoyed sewing, reading, classical music and shopping. With three children and one car she learned how to be a pretty efficient “bus driver”, as public transportation was not available where we lived in New Jersey. Why, she even took Nina & I on a date to a drive-in movie with Manina & John peeking at us from the front seat.
Mom would drive Carlton to the bus station each morning to catch a New York bound bus. Every evening, just at dinner time, she had to make a return trip to pick him up. During her absence she left instructions for me on how to complete cooking our dinner. That has turned out to be a very useful skill, in fact, over the years, Mom’s flank steak and macaroni and cheese recipes have taken on legendary status. Thanks Mom!
After Carlton passed away in 1999, she and John decided to move closer to the other members of her family who by then had settled in Georgia and Florida. Since she had never lost her beautiful southern accent, no one in Georgia could tell she had been living up north for over 40 years.
From her three children, the family grew to include four grandchildren (Heather, Kevin, Matthew and Patrick), and nine great-grandchildren (Gregory, Julianne, Jonathan, Dylan, Caroline, Benjamin, Kayden, Foster and Nicholas) ALL of whom are in this room today. Mom, your example has prepared us to live the productive lives that you and Carlton modeled so well.
Mom’s last few weeks of life she had difficulty breathing. Sitting up in bed, walking or even standing were out of the question and in that light I would like to share a few verses from Isaiah, chapter 40.
