I called her Mommy until I started high school. One day when I was 12, she took me aside and told me to use her name, Mary Elizabeth, which I did from then on. My heart barely remembers how it felt say Mommy.
I only saw my mother cry twice: once when I had thrown an especially horrific tantrum, and once decades later at the news of the death of a distant cousin. She was in her eighties by then.
“Everyone I knew is dead,” she lamented. “I am obsolete.”
I had no answer, but I told her, of course, that she wasn’t.
Since then, I’ve often wondered how she felt watching the world change around her (1911 to 2002). Things she’d learned as a child were outmoded; new generations had no clue what it was like – physically, morally, or visually – back in her day. When she was growing up, there was no television, no fruit out of season, no pantyhose. The airplane didn’t make its first commercial flight until a few years after she was born. There was no such thing as a long-distance phone call. None had yet dreamed there would be two World Wars. She was 9 when women got the right to vote.
My mother was an open-minded, free-thinking woman. She embraced the computer, the cell phone, and the digital camera. She accepted unwed mothers and live-in lovers without a second thought. Race may have been a problem for others of her era, but never for her. LGBT were no different from anyone else. The only folk she couldn’t abide were bigots, narrow minded people, and whiners.
She had an eye for color and design. She was an artist. She was a gentle soul. Sometimes she was lost in a world gone on without her; others, she was strong and flexible as bamboo, though unlike bamboo, she was one of a kind.
Here are just a few moments of her long and remarkable life, but they don’t do justice to the innovative, sensitive, multi-faceted woman she was and always will be in my mind.
~Mary Elizabeth Kable Rubin~
Love.
Mollie Hunt: Crazy Cat Lady Mysteries and more 
What a beautiful tribute to your mother. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Thank you. A man commented that he couldn’t tell if I had good memories or bad. I found that interesting. (Good BTW)
What a beautiful tribute to your Mother. She sounds like a really terrific lady!!!!!
Thank you. It was something I needed to do.
I’m doing a little research on Charles H Kable, who was an architect in Portland. I believe he was your mother’s father. We recently ran across an architectural rendering for sale on e-Bay for a fraternity house in Oregon. His name was on the drawing. It had similarities to my old fraternity at the University of Illinois. After a little research, I found that Charles was a member of my fraternity, graduating in 1902. Do you know any history of some of the buildings he may have designed? Thanks.
Hello! Yes, I am the granddaughter of C.H. Kable. That is my listing on eBay. I don’t have much history on his buildings however. I gave a lot of memorabelia to the Architectural Heritage Center here in Portland. They did some research. You could check with them. I will be selling his 1902 yearbook soon which might be of interest to you. Thanks for checking in!
Thanks, I’ll contact the Heritage Center. A member of our fraternity purchased the rendering and will frame and hang it in CH’s old fraternity at the University of Illinois.
That’s wonderful! FYI the auction for that item won’t over for a few days still, and there are many people watching, so the bids may go up right at the end. I hope your friend is prepared for that, since I’d love to see it go to such a place. You can email me at Molliehuntcatwriter@gmail.com to converse further.