Early this morning...
...after one and a half watchings of My Fair Lady (Mom decided to nap halfway through the first showing and insisted, when she awoke, that we start the movie over) and a very successful and savory Thanksgiving dinner, as we were working our way through our pre-bed ritual my mother began sighing and sighing and sighing.
    I thought she might be in some sort of low level pain, discomfort or breathlessness but after several nosy questions I determined she wasn't. Day before yesterday I'd mistaken what she told me was "humming" for a spasm of pain-or-discomfort related sighing so I checked out that possibility. Since we'd just watched a musical I thought maybe she was humming some of the popular tunes, since we'd sung along to several during the movie, even rocker danced through I Could Have Danced All Night. She wasn't humming.
    Mystified, another thought came into my head. I decided to matter-of-factly ask her, my immortal mother, if she felt that "death is close."
    The question, alone, stopped her sighing in it's tracks. "What ever gave you that idea?" She was clearly indignant.
    "Well," I scrambled, "all that sighing for what seems like no reason..."
    "Oh, I've got a reason, all right!"
    I couldn't help it. I laughed. "Okay, well, since I'm concerned, can you tell me, what's your reason?"
    "If you feel you must know, it's been a good, long day (it had been...altogether she was up for 10 hours) and I'm tired and ready for bed. Is that all right?!?"
    More laughter. "Yes, of course. It's just that you've only been sighing lately. I just wondered..."
    "Did anyone ever tell you you think too much?"
    "Yes. My mother tells me that. A lot."
    She grinned. "Maybe you should listen to your mother."
    Maybe I should.
- posted by Gail Rae @ 11:36   email  this post