Today is May 12, Mother's Day. May 12 is my favorite day of the year, for odd reasons. In an ironic twist, on May 12 seventeen years ago is also the last day I ever saw our Mother alive.
Mom was sick and dying of lung cancer. We knew she was terminal after having talked with her oncologist back in January of that year. Imagine being in the room when the doctor tells your beloved parent she's going to die within months, and she being far too young for that news.
Our Mom was my best friend, my protector, my teacher, my confidante. She was the closest person in the world to me until I met Karen. We didn't always agree on everything, but we never had major disagreements, either.
Mom taught me how to cook. She taught me how to read, how to love music, how to look at things with a critical eye. She even taught me how to throw.
I came home seventeen years ago for what I knew was going to be her last Mother's Day ever. I sat close next to her and talked with her as if there were no sword hanging over her head. I made sure to tell her I loved her and left, not knowing that I would never see her alive again.
When our brother called me telling me it wasn't good, I made it out to the hospital as quickly as I could. I arrived on the floor and stopped for a brief minute to hug our little nephews. While I was putting him down, the nurse came out and told us our Mother had just died.
I went into the room sobbing and saw our Mother's body on her bed, lifeless. I knew then that she had passed but somehow was in a state of suspended animation, disbelieving that she was gone because I'd arrived to say goodbye. She couldn't be gone yet. But she was.
Today is one of the few times when Mother's Day and May 12 have lined up in the same year since she passed. I think about Mom every single day. I wish she'd been able to meet Karen; they would have been good friends. I miss her more than I can possibly explain, but just the same as Karen misses her father and countless others miss someone who was once close to them.
I love her still to this day and make sure her memory is not forgotten.
Happy Mother's Day, Mom.
(c) 2013 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles
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