Tonight I wanna write about my mom: Debra Jean Israel
Man she was a one of a kind!
She was born in 1955 in Eastern Oregon to her parents, my grandma and grandpa. She has a sister and two brothers that were born over the next 15 years. As a teenager her parents separated and later divorced. My mom meet my dad after she graduated high school and they got married. They lived on ranches in Idaho and Wyoming and my mom had a love of the ranch life. She never got to stay in one place long because my dad was always on the move. So when she got pregnant with me they settled down in the area where she grew up. They had their fair share of problems. My dad was a drinker...
I remember my mom always fighting for us kids and sticking up for us when our dad was saying things that no child should hear. There was a lot of mental abuse at his hands. Eventually she realized things couldn't stay the same and she started seeking out God. She found a church in our town and refused to keep moving. We moved SO MANY times...I stopped making friends....but this was different. We stayed for a year or 2 and we started going to youth group and Sunday church and all the outings they offered. It was GREAT! I had never met nicer people and they were fun! Church camp outs were the best! Good times! Singing food and fires! So any way my mom was baptized at the first camp out we went to in the river that ran through the camp ground. It was so pretty! Clear water you could see to the bottoms and SO COLD! After that things changed...it was so neat to see her attitude change. She was more patient with us kids and really tried to get my dad involved in our church. He wanted no part of it. He pretended for a little bit but he really liked to party and drink. So one night he came home and scared us kids real bad. We were in our camper(where we slept) and we heard him pull up and walk to the door and he was talking to himself. He was so beyond drunk he was outta his mind and we knew something but didn't understand. So he goes inside and a few minutes later hear him yelling. We go in and being the oldest decide I will step between my mom and him so he'll stop yelling at her. He raises his hand as if he's going to hit me and my brother and sister start to scream and cry. My mom steps in and we all hide behind her and he is still screaming at us about some none scene. My mom loads us into the car and we go to the pastor's house and they take us in for the night. As we are leaving he is yelling about burning the house down and killing all our animals before we get back. The next day my mom decides this is no life for her kids and we move closer to her family again. She protected us at any cost.
During my life my mom never stopped praying for me. Even when I was addicted to meth for 10 years. She kept on and never gave up! I will forever be thankful for that. My mom dies in 2006 from complications of breast cancer and I will always have a piece of me missing. She was such a selfless person! Probably the most UNselfish person I have ever known...She will forever be missed by my family as well my brother's family and my sister's family.
She loved Jesus, she was funny with a sarcastic scene of humor and was blunt, was NOT afraid to say it how it was but with love and humility, she was not perfect but was trying to be the best person that Christ wanted her to be. She loved her grandkids and was a good teacher to them, my son still remembers a LOT about her, and cries occasionally because he misses her. Those who knew her and loved her still miss her everyday. She was the best mom for me and I'm really happy she got to see my hubby and I clean and sober :)
