Today would be my mother’s birthday.

Maude Louise Littlefield Freeman

born March 11, 1907 in Waterville, Maine

She’s the reason MV is in the lives of my family. Although born in Maine she was raised on MV and through her we’ve all come to love the Vineyard.

Her father died when she was 3 years old, her mother remarried and that husband died when my mother was around six.  At that point my grandmother, Albra Mae met and married a Vineyarder named Arthur Baird, Sr and so my grandmother and my mother Maude came to live on Martha’s Vineyard in Oak Bluffs  and thus began our connection to, and love of the Vineyard.

After my mother graduated from high school she moved to New Jersey and..

married a Jersey boy…. and had a Jersey girl 🙂

My first trip to the Vineyard was when I was less than a year old…  here I am on the beach in Oak Bluffs with my mother and godmother…

My entire family has been to MV with me at one time or another but never all of us at the same time. That’s okay though as the Vineyard is a different experience depending on who I’m there with.

I hope she knows how grateful we all are to her for the gift of the Vineyard she gave to us…. thank you Mom

Although I’ve tried to say how deeply I feel about my mother and the Vineyard, no words I could find could say so beautifully what my daughter Deb wrote below about her grandmother.

Please take a moment to CLICK HERE and read Deb’s post.