Amanda Jane Rodgers

Amanda is my third daughter born on a cold Saturday morning October 16, 1976. I had jokingly told my mother that I was going to have Amanda at home because Doctor's put you to sleep during child birth. I had however decided that I was not going to the hospital quickly when the time came because I didn't want to lay in the hospital for two days before I gave birth.

On Friday evening October 15th it had begun to get cold. My sister Brenda and I were at my mothers house. Mom decided to put up the wood burning heater and build a fire. Mom and Brenda proceeded with trying to fit pipes together and assemble everything. I sat in the recliner laughing at them. About six pm I knew I was in labor but didn't say anything. By ten o'clock their determination had not assembled the heater and I was laughing so hard that I was crying. My labor pains became so strong that Mom and Brenda saw I was in labor. They became like Lucy and Ethel, panicking because I had been in labor so long.

Amanda was born in the wee hours of the morning on October 16th. She was born on my brother-in-law Charles Smiths birthday so I thought about naming her Charlotte Jane and calling her Charlie but my mom talked me out of it saying I shouldn't call her by a boys name. So I named her after the song Amanda by Kenny Rodgers called her Mandy from Barry Manilow's song and Jane after her biological great grandmother Della Jane Tidwell.

Mandy was tiny and beautiful with a personality to match. She grew up winning hearts with whoever she came in contact with. Her dreams became stories of laughter. One time at her grandmothers house she woke to inform everyone that Indians had surrounded the house during the night shooting arrows. To prove it had happened she raised her shirt, pointed at her belly button and said, "See this is where they shot me!" In later years her creativity turn to writing poetry which I have begged her to share with the world.

Mandy's personality has continued to win hearts as she grew into a beautiful young woman. One of the things that touched my heart during her junior year in high school was the prom was coming up and everyone was making plans. Mandy was dating Shane VanDeweghe who she later married but kept her maiden name. We were sitting on the sofa one evening and she said, Mom I have decided who I am going to take to the prom." I was a little worried since she put it that way and I ask her if this was going to be someone I disapproved of. She continued very seriously, "I hope not because I really want to take this person to my prom." When I ask who, she replied, "You."

My mouth fell open in shock and surprise. After I recovered and could speak I told her that was a wonderful idea but her classmates would tease her so I didn't think that was a good idea. She smiled and said "Am I your daughter? Did you not teach me if I felt something was right and I wasn't hurting anyone else that I shouldn't care what others think? My mother never had a chance to go to her prom and I want to take you to mine!" My daughter and I shopped for dresses and she walked into her prom with me by her side with a proud smile on her face.

That is our Mandy Jane.