How Are You Tonight?

 

WITH MOTHER’S DAY UPON US I began to think about the time we have with our mothers. How much of our lives we share. My mother passed away in 1985, but my wife, The Impressive and Loving Rev. Dawn, is most fortunate. Her mother is still with us. She is living her life and loving her family every day at the age of 94.

One of the truly wonderful things that I see every day is that Dawn calls her mother every morning and every evening. Sometimes they will sit and chat for ten minutes while other days it is a quick check-in and an “I love you.” It lifts them both.

On the rare occasion that Dawn is tied up on a conference call at 9 PM (the usual time for the evening call) I will call Texas and we have our own little chatfest. When I call her I have taken to identifying myself as “John of Terre Haute.” We have decided that it sounds rather biblical and just a touch silly. I’m fine with that. One thing I always do is reassure Dawn’s mother that as soon as Dawn is free she will call her. I’m just a stopgap caller – John of Terre Haute (That’s French for “She will call you soon.”). I cherish the job and the title.

Few people are blessed the way Dawn and her mother are blessed – To have these years where they can talk every day. They laugh, they rejoice, they commiserate, and just catch up on their day. Like any family there are joys and there are tragedies, births and deaths and there are always plans to make.

The Family (with a large F) gets together around the Holidays as well as every July. Each summer the generations gravitate back to the small home town and the old house is filled with the sounds of an ever increasing number of Great-Grandchildren. Everyone comes to visit with “Gramma.”

Even at 94 she shows a remarkable stamina having a house filled to bursting with wave after wave of visitors. I know that it exhausts me and I’m just a kid by comparison. By late in the evening I’m either flat on my back in bed or nodding off in the chair in the corner as the whirlpool continues around me. Gramma doesn’t miss a beat.

They are quite a Family and they have quite a Matriarch.

How fortunate Dawn and her mother are to have those twice daily telephone calls. So many of us would love to be so lucky. But life is what it is – and what it isn’t.

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