Mom-ism Monday #14

My mother-in-law Elizabeth Fronnie Stafford was a ringtail tooter! Oops! Nobody, I mean not one soul was supposed to know her middle name. She hated it! Lizzy left us in 1997 but her mom-isms are alive and thriving in our family.

I never really understood the extremely dire meaning in the mom-ism for today until I read the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. You can read it here. When Elizabeth didn't shower or she'd had a hard, sweaty day at work or if she was just generally unkempt on a lazy day, she'd always apologize for her looks by saying...

After reading the dreary poem which ends:

Such was the wreck of the Hesperus,

      In the midnight and the snow!

Christ save us all from a death like this,

      On the reef of Norman's Woe!

I'm figuring looking like The Wreck of the Hesperus is as ugly and ghastly as one can get! 

Are you familiar with the poem? I hope you are now and...you have a new way to say "I look terrible!"

Learning new poetry,

Tammy

The Happy Handicap