When my mother was diagnosed in 2006 with the same terminal congestive heart failure that had killed her mother and her sister and her brother at age 84, she had just turned 80.
She took it, a lot better than I did.
Mama said she needed to hire some woman to babysit her until her eventual demise, and in the meantime I should go practice law and not worry about her.
She had me drive her in my Cadillac to a run down home with junk all over and around the yard in Humansville and she interviewed a poor, hunchbacked woman to come to her home a few hours every day.
The woman answered Mama’s questions and looked across at me, and said
You don’t remember me, do you Van?
I said I know I should but it’s been 30 years since I left Humansville.
She said you were 16 and had your Mustang and Betty was your girlfriend and I was two years behind you in school.
And I was waking to my home North of the school and carrying my books and two boys were making fun of me, and tormenting me, and pushing me, and you drove up, parked your car, and kicked both of them with your cowboy boots and then turned your class ting upside down and knocked knots on their heads.
Then you had me get in your Mustang and drove me downtown so I could wave at my friends, and took me home.
I will never ever forget you, Van.
I said will you take good care, of my mother?
Like she was my own, she said.
As we drove away, my mother said you never told me that story. It does sound like something you’d do though, and forget about.
She said I was waiting for the part where you walked across the water, but she must have left that part out. I’m happy to claim credit for raising you to do such noble deeds.
She licked her lips, adjusted her make up, and said let’s go up to the A Frame Cafe and I can show you off there, too.
Thy Burdens Are Greater Than Mine
When I was a boy and I went out alone my mother would always, without fail, say
Christ sees everything you do—-AND DON’T DO—and you’ll someday account for it.
True or not, it’s the best way to live, for me.
There is a Record Book
and shame this happened to a man dominated forum.
