MARCH 3, 2008 – MOMMY and ME - BLOG #003 – RE-PLANTING A FLOWER

There were many, many good and even tense times at Mommy’s house over the years when she was there alone. Being all of thirty minutes from me, it became increasingly difficult to just run out to her, especially trying to start a brand new business, trying to keep appointments and hustle gigs. I’d make it a point to nip the snow shoveling in the bud by getting what I could up in the middle of the night sometimes and then saving time when I’d go out the next day for the rest. I faced the same concerns in the summer, trying to keep her lawn together.

She and I would plant flowers each year. It was like a ritual every year, loading up and going over to “Brocks” after Mother’s Day to pick up our flats of impatients, marigolds and petunias, “petunies” as she called them. Every time, it never failed, I’d plant at least one flower in the wrong place, a place that she didn’t want it and then tell me to re-plant it “closer” to something. I had to make sure that before I left that day that every flower (about 4 flats) were in the right place or she’d try to re-plant them herself. She tried it once and toppled over into the flower bed that I had just watered. It was a hilarious moment when she came strolling up the driveway towards me, covered in mud from her forehead to her knees. She could hardly walk for laughing so hard. After re-gaining my composure all I could do is laugh and make fun of her too.

I knew that eventually I’d have to make a decision on having her closer to me and then even with me. When Mommy felt like it, she’d instruct me (sometimes in detail) about what she wanted me to do when the time comes. One of those instructions was that she didn’t want to live in a nursing home. I promised her that she wouldn’t. It was around 1998 when we first talked about the home next door to me being perfect for her. The owner was an elderly gentleman who was resisting going to live with his son. It was time in the early part of 2001 and I purchased to home for her. She asked me to have a screened in porch built on the back so that she could watch her birds, which she loved doing. After a number of other modifications to the house, it was time. Packing her three bedroom, full basement, two car garage home was a huge undertaking. It will have to go into a two bedroom home with no basement. The movers placed the large things where (and near) they would set. But I stuck boxes of stuff anywhere I could.

But I’d never forget the look on her face when it was time to leave her house for the last time. She stood in her dinning room staring at what was her living room where many memories were made. I knew that she had just realized that she wouldn’t be back. I felt that I had to re-assure her that she would be just as happy in her new home. I had to re-assure her that I will be right beside her and keep her happy and safe. I had to re-assure her that everything will be alright. It was like RE-PLANTIING A FLOWER closer to ME.