Monday, July 16, 2007
Ten years ago....
... it was a beautiful summer day, just like it is today. The boys and their friends were playing in the pool. We needed to get ready to go to my brothers birthday party. I had just asked the kids to get out of the pool when the telephone rang.
It was not a call I would have expected. A call that would change my life forever. I was told to go to the hospital. When I arrived at the hospital, I was told that my mother was gone. Disbelief was my first reaction.
Driving back home, thoughts of how to tell the boys raced through my brain. Needing time to collect my thoughts and have a good cry, I stopped, purchased a pack of cigarettes and found a quiet place. I had been smoke for more than three days, but now I needed a cigarette.
The next few days were a bit of a blur. You do not expect to have your mother die at the age of 63. I thought she was too stubborn to leave us so soon. There is never a good time for someone's life to end. But they remain alive in us and our memories.
Ten years later, my brother no longer celebrates his birthday, my sister still grieves the loss and I am still smoking. This day I choose to celebrate my mother's life by remembering the time we drive to Vermont just to get an ice cream cone, feeding the ducks at Forest Park,and camping in a tent at the beach. These are just a few of the memories I cherish.
