Loreta Francis Pardieck October 25, 1919 - August 1, 1993
My adoptive mother, the only mother I will EVER call or consider my mother, was and always will be the most important influence in my life. Her spirit and teachings will always be alive and well in my heart. She made me everything I am today. I could never have been raised by a better person or asked for a better mother. She took me into her heart and home at the age of 56 after the last of her four children had married and spent the rest of her life fighting for and defending me from anyone or anything that she thought might hurt me. She fought the courts who told her that because of her age she could not adopt me. When I was 9 years old, she finally won the fight and adopted me. I was able to change my (much hated at that time biological name) from Leslie Sue King to Leslie (Charlie) Pardieck on that happy day. I still remember the song playing in my brother Sid's car as we drove home after signing the papers-Kenny Roger's "Stuck On You", and thinking now my mom and I are stuck together for good!!

She began to get sick shortly after I was adopted and her husband died. I was happy to help take care of her to the best of my abilities, always with the huge fear hanging that I could lose her any day. Her health fluctuated back and forth until I was 15. She had a heart bypass and during the operation had a stroke that robbed her of more than half of her vision and fine motor skills. She was unable drive her new 1985 Buick Regal that she had waited her entire lifetime to buy, and that was the hardest blow for her to cope with I believe. It left her pretty much home bound and unable to function in her life the way she had learned to after losing her lifetime partner Albert, when I was 8. I tried to help her cope with her homebound life after I got my license but it became hard on both her and I to endure...I was the mother of the relationship now. I was such a stupid teenager and often took advantage of my role and I have the rest of my life to be sorry for it. I would do anything now to go back and change my wild teenage ways. If only I could go back and spend more nights watching TV with her instead of locked up in my room with my music or running the streets with people that I thought were my friends at that time!! YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE UNTIL IT IS GONE!!! I can only hope that what I have made of myself today can even begin to make up to my mother the terrible last years of her life that she had to spend dealing with a wild teenager and that I live every day with the guilt for the grief I caused her.

I lost my mom when I was 18. Soon after I got my own apartment, got my GED and put myself thru college working 2 jobs. The experience of losing my mom at an early age formed me into a very strong independent young woman. After I got my associate degree in 1996, I packed up all my stuff and moved to Houston by myself with just my cat in search of making a new and better life for myself, all on my own. Within 48 hours of arriving, I had landed a place to live and a new job. I never could have done it if my mother had not shown me to be stubborn and fight hard for what I felt I needed to do, the way she did for me. I now am a successful married woman and plan on passing all the gifts that she gave me on to my own children. She WILL live on!! I am sure my mother is proud of me because like I said, she is alive and well in my heart.