A brown haired, brown-eyed girl was born on July 15, 1935 at Fountain Green Hospital, in Harford County, Maryland.  She was named Elizabeth Ann Ruff and was brought home to Ruff’s Chance, the farm that has been in her family since the 1600’s.  The house that she lives in now has been in the Ruff family since it was built in 1800 and it is an important part of Mom-mom’s life.  She grew up a farm girl and although she doesn’t run the farm, it is still very close to her heart.
         Mom-mom had many happy experiences throughout her childhood.  Her first four years of school, Mom-mom attended Thomas Run School, which was a one-room schoolhouse.  Then she went to Churchville Elementary School until eighth grade.  One of her fondest memories is about one of her dogs, Rags.  During the summer time, she would go to the lush green meadow where the streams were.  Mom-mom would pick up a rock, let Rags smell it and then throw it in the stream.  Rags would jump in the stream and come out with the exact rock in his mouth every time!  Mom-mom never found out how Rags did it.  World War II started in 1941 so she was 6 years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed.  Luckily for her, none of her relatives were killed during World War II.  Because she lived on a farm with plenty of eggs, milk, and lots of meat she did not have to ration food like many other Americans did.  Mom-mom stressed living on a farm wasn’t easy at all.  There were always many chores to do with all of the plants and animals to take care of.  Mom-mom only had her brother, Jimmy to split the chores with.  Her part of the chores were to gather eggs, feed the chickens, teach the new calves how to drink calf manna out of a bucket, feed the turkeys, and to clean the cows “house” and feed them while she was milking them.   It all sounds like a lot of hard work to me, but as Mom-mom talked about these childhood memories she had a happy smile on her face.
         Activities such as sports, schoolwork, friends, and the farm took up most of her teenage years.  Mom-mom had many animals since she lived on a farm.  She had a lot of dogs (at least 3 around the farm), ducks, and horses.  She loved to ride horses, but her favorite animal of all was a lonely mutt-dog, named Pup.  Their friendship started one evening, when the ground was covered in a white blanket of snow.  Mom-mom saw Pup shivering and breathing hard, hiding on the front porch.  Mom-mom took her in that evening when the sun was setting.  Mom-mom said “Pup followed her everywhere from that moment on”.  When she went to the market, Pup would jump into the car, even when Mom-mom went horseback riding, Pup would be right beside her.  Pup’s life ended when a car hit her.  It took Mom-mom a long time to recover from the sadness of missing her best friend.  Mom-mom went to Bel Air High School and graduated in 1952.  Her world revolved around sports during high school.  She played speedball, a sport that is no longer played; it is sort of like rugby, without the tackling.  She also excelled in basketball, softball, and track.  Her senior year her basketball team were the Harford County champions.  Mom-mom was the student council vice president and student of the month in the Aegis.  For fun when Mom-mom got her license, she would drive with her friends in her dad’s yellow Ford convertible and drive to parties, friend’s houses, and swimming holes in the summer.
         If Mom-mom thought that it was hard as a child to be doing all of those chores, it became much harder being an adult.  She was accepted to Towson University and was going to learn how to be a gym teacher.  But before school started she got her first job as a telephone operator in Bel Air.  She liked having the money coming in and decided not to go to college.  As she looks back, not going to college is her one major regret about her life.
          Once a week Mom-mom would bring eggs to the A&P market from the farm.  One particular day she felt some eyes staring at her as she held her basket full of eggs.  The tall, blue eyed produce manager smiled at her and asked “Do you want to get married?”
          Right away Mom-mom answered “No”, but he wasn’t taken back at all, in fact his response was quite the opposite that she had expected.
         “Neither do I”, he smirked in a gruff, deep kind of voice.  Even though they both met at the market that day and said no; they both later became husband and wife.  They were married on August 18, 1956 at St. Margaret’s Church in Bel Air, Maryland.  A year later, on November 8th they had their first child, Rebecca.  William, Daniel (my dad), Mark, Benjamin, Patrick, Catherine, John (we call him David), and Mathew were all to follow.  Raising nine children wasn’t that easy to do.  It was especially difficult because her husband worked 5 days a week at a meat plant 90 miles away.  Even when he was home, Mom-mom said “He didn’t help with the household chores”.  Mom-mom told me that she “lost touch to the whole world.”  Of course it is easier now, that Mom-mom’s sons and daughters are all grown up.  Mom-mom and Grandpa’s house is a hectic place when all 14 grandchildren and aunts and uncles are there together.
        Mom-mom has always stayed healthy over the years because of her healthy hobbies.  She still runs every day through the woods at 5:30 A.M. and takes vitamins to stay healthy. Don’t all of those “Got Milk?” commercials really make you wonder if milk does help build strong bones?  Well, wonder no more because Mom-mom has always drunk milk and has never broken a bone in her life although she has fallen off her horse many times and sprained her ankles and wrists.  She loves to garden and take care of the house.  If you visit her house you will see a beautiful garden in the front, back, and both sides.
         My grandmother has many special heritages in her family.  George Mason of Gunston Hall, who was the author of the Bill of Rights for Virginia and a close friend to Thomas Jefferson, is her fourth great grandfather.  Mom-mom’s house also plays a roll in Harford County history.  A large Georgian style home, it was built in the early 1800’s, but the Ruff family has owned the land that the house was built on since the 1600’s.  There was originally 650 acres of land that has gradually been divided up through the generations.  There is a stone house on the property that is older than Mom-mom’s house.
         Mom-mom hopes to live up to 100 years old as long as her mind is still alert and her body doesn’t hurt too much.  Whenever I go over to their house in Bel Air, Mom-mom is always busy with gardening or baking.  Around the holidays you have your choice of apple, cherry, lemon, pumpkin, or blueberry pie.  The cookie jar is always full and my favorite is her chocolate chip cookies.  I hope to see her live to 100 years old so she can tell my children about her life growing up on a farm and let them try her famous apple pie.