Wednesday, October 17, 2018

When Mother's Happy......





There were good times and bad times for Mother to come for a visit.  This may have been one of the better times for her to come as things were going pretty well.  At least there was enough snow and cold weather that perhaps I was not going to have to go out and run three miles every morning with her. Plus she had seemed pretty cheerful on the phone for the last few weeks.  Dennis not so cheerful but what else was new.

In all honestly it had been a rough five years for Mother since George passed away shortly before Wally was born.  She had married George and moved to Oklahoma City in 1970.  If there was ever a prince on a white horse that rescued someone it was George. He was a geologist and one of the sweetest people you would ever want to meet.  They had a lot of fun together, flew all over the country in his little plane, spent a lot of time with all his friends and she was happier than I had ever seen her.  George's sudden death at age 54 was devastating to all who knew him.

Mother had a couple of male suitors in the five and a half years since George's death.  One we liked but she didn't and one she liked that we couldn't stand.  But I was always careful to just let things ride as it was her life, not mine plus one did not argue with Mother.  It was strange how giddy she had become lately and when she arrived on a Tuesday afternoon she was noticeably different.  She actually talked to the boys and seemed happy to see Dennis when he came home. I had not even had to revert to my usual stage of becoming twelve years all and taking directives from her.  Something was up for sure.

Before she arrived I found out that most of the mini blinds for Jim and Lisa's house were done so when she asked what I needed to do for the rest of the week I told her that there was a luncheon on Thursday that might be fun.  Also told her there were some blinds I really needed to install at a house I thought she would like to see if we could fit it in. She was agreeable to both so I called Lisa and set a time for us to install the blinds on Thursday after the luncheon.  That way Karen could pick up Wally from Mother's Day Out and take care of Wes when he got home from school.

In phone conversations with Mother I had told her about Jim and Lisa and their house.  The luncheon was fun and she enjoyed meeting everyone and promised Karen she would send recipes for the cookbook the New Neighbor's League, actually Karen, was putting together for a fundraiser. Then it was off to put up some blinds. Mother had been rather dubious about my little decorating business almost to the point of not believing I could really do something like that. Pulling up at Jim and Lisa's house was really a surprise.

Lisa was preparing for a dinner party the next night so the timing was perfect.  Remember me saying that when I first went to the house the only furniture was a dining room table that sat sixteen people?  She was busy setting the table for sixteen guests and I learned a neat trick in that she set the table ahead of time and turned all the plates and crystal upside down so that was all done in advance. I took off my heels and put on my tennis shoes to install the blinds while Lisa took Mother on a tour of the house. Just when I finished Jim arrived home, turned on the jukebox and told me it was time to dance. He tried to get Mother to dance with him but she begged off.  Needless to say she could not stop talking about the house or how nice the people were for the rest of the visit.  

She decided she needed to go home on Saturday morning and thought maybe we should all go out for pizza and then go bowling on Friday night.  Okay...I knew something was different as she had banned me from the bowling alley as a teenager because according to hear bad people with tattoos hung out at the bowling alley. To my knowledge she had never been bowling in her life and also was not fond about going out to dinner with little boys. Sounded like fun to me but what brought this on?

Finally got up the courage and the right words to ask her what was new since she had acted different ever since she arrived.  Her first comment was nothing but I pressed on and she finally told me she had started running at the Baptist Pacer Fitness Center in Oklahoma City every morning. All sorts of reasons why running indoors was better that out on the street. Finally she got around to the fact that she had met a man who was very nice and also ran everyday as part of his therapy after open heart surgery. So she was now in her flirty happy mode.  I told her I was happy for her while I was really thinking thank heavens.  This had been the first time since George passed away that she didn't get in a fight with Dennis, actually talked to her grandchildren and didn't make me feel like I was an idiot twelve year old.  This I can deal with with.

That evening of pizza and bowling may have been the nicest time we ever had together as a family. No one bowled very well but there was lots of laughter.  I was actually sad to see her leave the next morning and amazed that she didn't need help in finding her way out of town and onto the highway. It was going to be interesting to meet this man.
Guess the old saying when Mother's happy everyone is happy is true.

Life got back to it's busy normal but busy was good.  Wes had joined Cub Scouts and Wally was good enough at roller skating to go with me to Wes's school's skating parties.  I was busy working on both Lisa and Jim's house and Barney's upstairs plus I had a wallpaper job coming up 
which consisted hanging  hundred rolls of wallpaper in a house under construction pretty far out in the country.  Found a neat lady in the New Neighbors who thought it might be fun to be a helper.

Then I got a call from my brother that I had sort of been expecting but one you are never really prepared for.  Dad had passed away.



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