This time last week, I was getting ready to head back to Huntersville. I had gone down on Saturday to visit my mom and my step-dad. I had not seen them since Christmas and it was time to make the trip. Even though I drove down and back in the rain to do so, the trip was well worth it.
Mom had been saying for months that she needed to see me. I don’t know why. I am the same as I always was. I guess you have to be a mom to understand the “need” to see one of your children. I know she thinks and “worries” about all of us. She has my sister and one of my brothers near by. I live about three hours away (by car). And, the Dr. brother lives in Lake Charles, LA.
When we talk on the phone every Sunday evening, Mom always wants to know how I am and what is going on. I fill her in on stories about what has or will be happening at work. She likes to hear me talk about the dogs that I have met at the practice. She really enjoys the stories I tell about those boarding over the weekend. I fill her in on which ones I live and which ones I tollerate. I love to hear her laugh about my adventures.
Well, she has been trying to figure out how she could get “up here” to see me. And, I finally had the opportunity, so I planned an over night trip to satisfy her need to see me and my desire to allow her to do so. Since getting my new job in March, I have been working on weekends and then I had car issues. So, with a free weekend and my car repaired, the time was right to make the trip.
I got there before lunch on Saturday. Visiting my mom involves a lot of sitting in the “living room” because she and Jay (my step-dad) don’t get out much. Mom is still pretty ambulatory but does not like to leave Jay. Jay is getting more and more homebound. Going out only to go to the Doctor or the church. Occasionally you can get him out for a meal but not often.
He feels safer at home because he is less and less steady on his feet. Seems that his old heart has some trouble pumping hard enough when he first stands up causing Jay to sometimes faint. (I agree I would rather be at home than out if I felt like I was going to fait too!) He has the standard aches and pains of someone his age (I actually think he does a lot better than most being that he is 88 years old.) He has taken to walking with a walker.
This walker is something else…It is the elite mode. It has a seat and it had hand brakes. All it needs is some headlights and a racing stripe or two and he would be “styling”. He uses it more for safety rather than needing it go get around. He whips all around the house with this thing. (It makes me think of a young child who can walk very well but just needs to hold on to that little finger to have the confidence to do so.) But, if he feels faint…he can quickly turn around and sit down.
Saturday afternoon, we made a visit to my sister and brother-in-law’s house. We stayed there for a few hours. Involving more sitting in the “living room”. We traded stories about our pets. Each of us kids have pets and so do most of the grand children. We have always loved animals and it shows. My sister has two cats named Teddy and Henry. She is was more inventive than I am when it comes to names….mine are Orange and Lump. They started out life as Mcgyver and MoJoe…but those names did not match the kitties. So, when I got them, the names went away….Orange is, believe it or not, an orange tabby. Lump…is aptly named because that is what he is.
We had vegetable soup for dinner. It was wonderful. Mom always makes a huge pot of it when I come to visit. Used to be the soup was made with all the vegetables left over from previous meals….not enough to serve again by themselves but enough to flavor a tomatoe based soup with a little ham or stew beef thrown in. Now, the soup is all out of cans rather than from the garden…but the love put into making it is still the same. The soup is always served with rice…that is always how it has been eaten as long as I can remember. It makes it last to feed a horde of people…(lessons learned during lean times) We also have cornbread with it. Nothing better than sitting down at the table with a bowl of my mom’s soup and some cornbread….YUM!
Sunday was more sitting. Mom and I met my sister and her husband at a local buffet resturant for lunch. We had an early one as they had things on their agenda and I had to make plans to drive back to Huntersville. The lunch was the highlight of the visit I think.
We told stories from the past about our Grandfather. We laughed about stories Mom told about her childhood. Most of the stories were centered around church and the goings on that happen during sermons in the various denominations where they live. Mom regaled us with stories of women so filled with the “spirit” that they thrashed about so much that their hair (which could not be cut if you were saved) would come undone and be flung back and forth with force as the spirit filled twitched and rolled around on the floor or running up and down the aisles of the little country church.
My sister and I recounted how frightened we used to get during these types of displays during revivals or church services. Then my sister, straight faced, asked my mom why she kept cutting our hair short if you had to have long hair to be saved? We rolled in the floor over that one too.
We laughed so hard we made spectacles of ourselves. But, since almost everyone knows everyone in this small little city on the coast, those who saw us chalked it up to our visiting with each other. That is what is so “neat” about this little town…you know just about everyone and every time you go out, you run into someone you know. Everyone speaks to each other and greets you like a long lost friend.
I hated to pack my car and pull out on the road but it had to be done. Mom sent home the rest of the soup with suggestions on how to cook rice to go along with it. She offered more food and sweets….she offered gas money…. I saw her standing at the door waving as I drove down the street starting my trek home to NC.
Can’t wait to talk to her today….
