Page 193 - Foy

uman beings are complex and it is difficult to describe them and their lives
Hto others. My mother was a FOY. I do not know if there is such a thing as
family traits - characteristics passed down through a family blood line - but, the older
I get and the more I observe in life I suspect there is. And if the characteristics she had
that I admired came from FOY blood, I am proud to be a FOY too.

Mother had a strong personality. She was opinionated, firm in her beliefs, had high
expectations of herself and others and was anxious for things to go the way she wanted
them to. She was a doer. She got things done and never suspected she could not do

almost anything.

Years of swimming against public opinion regarding women smoking and old age took
their toll on her life but she took care of her problems herself and was never dependent
on others. In her last year of life she lost a hand to a floating blood clot.

Years of smoking required she be tethered to an oxygen tank but she never
gave up her independence. Even though she knew it to be impossible she
claimed she could feel her missing hand and talked of the possibility of it
growing back. I saw that as a continuation of the “ I can do anything”
attitude. As close to death as I have ever seen anyone, she was determined
to get out of her hospital bed and go places she wanted to go. And, she did-
for a while - but the active life she tried to live was too much for her and she
was back in the hospital a few months later.

I will always remember the last time I saw her alive; a frail, distorted body in

a hospital bed in Tomball, Texas, tubes like we all have seen on TV running
into and out of her, the set of her jaw, the defiant look in her eyes - everyone
but she knew she would not leave that bed alive. But, to the end she truly
expected she would.

As you read this bookI think you will see the FOYs had that same inner
strength - that self assurance they would and could survive anything. And, I

think you will be proud of the FOYs as I am, particularly my mother.

RICHARD P. MILLER
5203 NODAWAY LN
SPRING, TEXAS 77379

TAB 17 Cisco Clan Page 4