As soon as I got back from helping Katie with her two girls for a little over two weeks, I washed my clothes, repacked, jumped in the car, and headed East with Clark for his annual business trip to the Carolinas. It was not a vacation. It was driving to small communities, waiting on Clark in the car, sitting in the lobby of a mill, or hanging out in the hotel while he visited the mill owners to talk about this year's cotton yield, or the market, or whatever else a cotton merchant would discuss with his client. We did get to see Clark's daughter, Casey, and her husband, and some good friends along the way, but I also managed a lost/stolen iphone4 in the process. It was pretty tough coming back to the hotel to no cell phone--not just any cell phone-- but my friend, Kathy, filled in the gap with an extra phone she had that happened to be with the same carrier as ours. It saved my life, because I was trying to keep in touch with Katie and my mom while we were on the road. Thanks, again, Kathy!
We cut our trip short about a week, because Mama was not doing well about a week into our trip. Her hip had mended nicely, but her confusion was drastically worse. I believe I had my last real conversation with her while she was in rehab, but I didn't know it at the time. .... which makes me want to scream to everybody to enjoy and love your family as much as you can as often as you can because you have today.....period. And don't think about yesterday if it was yucky, because you are not going to profit one bit from going back, rehashing, or doing the shoulda, coulda, woulda thing. Just take the good stuff and learn from the bad stuff. (I know this is sounding preachy, but I am emotional right now.)
Life is truly shorter than I imagined, and as I visit with Mama, I understand more what she meant when she told me over and over in my adult years to: "Go, Do, honey". And I hope to go and do as much as possible. There are so many things to go and do here in Memphis and where my kids and grandkids are, not to mention all the other options we have in today's world that can make a difference. It's a good thing that Clark is a "goer" and a "doer" because he's a good one to take with.........
We cut our trip short about a week, because Mama was not doing well about a week into our trip. Her hip had mended nicely, but her confusion was drastically worse. I believe I had my last real conversation with her while she was in rehab, but I didn't know it at the time. .... which makes me want to scream to everybody to enjoy and love your family as much as you can as often as you can because you have today.....period. And don't think about yesterday if it was yucky, because you are not going to profit one bit from going back, rehashing, or doing the shoulda, coulda, woulda thing. Just take the good stuff and learn from the bad stuff. (I know this is sounding preachy, but I am emotional right now.)
Life is truly shorter than I imagined, and as I visit with Mama, I understand more what she meant when she told me over and over in my adult years to: "Go, Do, honey". And I hope to go and do as much as possible. There are so many things to go and do here in Memphis and where my kids and grandkids are, not to mention all the other options we have in today's world that can make a difference. It's a good thing that Clark is a "goer" and a "doer" because he's a good one to take with.........
3 comments:
Yup. Go Do. And life IS shorter than any of us imagined. And you ain't preachin'. You're sounding an alarm that a lot of folks need to hear. If you haven't been there, You Don't Know. It helps if somebody who's right there/right now can tell you what you might encounter. Sometimes when I was going through things in my life--with my mom and dad, or just anything, really. I'd be like: WHY didn't somebody SAY something about this? WHY didn't somebody TELL me? Well, damn. They should have. Would I have taken in the message? I don't know. But I hope so. And it's worth it to try and help folks who are fixin' to be on that path.
I never feel like I've done enough for my friends so I was more than happy to do the small thing of giving you a phone that was just laying around collecting dust! I'm so sorry you had to cut your trip short for that reason. Glad YOU are safe. Now Go! Do!
Sory about the turn of events, Corlea. You have a good grasp on things. I'd love right now to be able to answer my mother asking the same question over and over. Life is hard sometimes. But God is always good. My mother seemed to fluctuate mentally according to her diet and activity and stimulation. There are a lot of things that can affect an older person from medications to imbalances that can be detected with blood work. I'm keeping you in my prayers. Sylvia
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