71 Years Later: Mom Reconnects

It's been seventy-one years since my mother was graduated from her high school.  A place that holds her heart even to this day.  A place she felt nurtured, loved, and challenged.  Seventy-one years holding good memories, for the most part.  Seventy-one years of holding another type of memory - the loss of her father just three months before she left a place she called home.  A nun who took her under her wing after her mother fell apart with grief at the loss of her husband.

On Friday, Mom reluctantly kept her doctor's appointment.  All checked out well.  I told him about the next day's reunion.  The doctor asked Mom if she wanted to go.  She said she did.  He told me he saw no reason why she couldn't attend, so I called the Alumni Association and reserved our seats.  Mom seemed happy that the wheels had been set in motion.

Yesterday morning, Mom told me she couldn't go because no one would watch Dickens.  (Dickens would be fine in his crate I told her.)  She appeared to anxious, out of sorts, hell, downright cranky.  She vehemently stated she would not leave the dog.  My reasurrance fell on deaf ears.  I told her the day had been paid for and did she really want to lose the money.  In the blink of an eye, she began to dress (it's got to be her Scottish heretage speaking).

Once we got there, Mom morphed into the bell of the ball.  At our table sat younger graduating years, but two stood out brilliantly - Mom, from the class of 1941, and another woman from the Class of 1940.  Mom met another classmate who she hadn't seen in years.  The event swept her up so much that she didn't want to eat, just socialize and take it all in.

Mom couldn't attend any event without bring something.  She had her band photo from 1940, her 1941 Commencement Program, and her father's picture in the event those "Just older" alum remembered his store. 

I am deeply indebted to a teacher who helped me to tend to Mom - Mrs. C.  Mrs. C. taught business at the school (now closed).  She has the sweetness demeanor I've ever met in a teacher.  Her smile radiates compassion.  I heard she had been a tough teacher, yet fair. Kinda made me want to turn back time and pursue a business track.  Mrs. C. definitely deserved a place on my hero shelf.  I can't thank her enough.

As the awards program began, Mom had already shown signs of fatigue.  It had indeed been a very long day.  I told the coordinator I needed to get her home.  She asked me if I could wait a few minutes.  I agreed, but she knew I was concerned.  At the bottom of the program, the Association presented Mom with a half-dozen beautiful roses.  Her smile lit up the room.

Mom told me she enjoyed her day once we got home.  It certainly had its moments, but that reconnection, that being part of a long-ago lifetime has to be the best medicine she's taken to date.

Today's gray weather gives Mom a chance to catch up by sleeping and recharging her batteries.  The connections now a little fresher.  Fresh with present day memories of her school years.  Fresh with memories from her neighborhood.

I'd go through yesterday morning's battle a hundred times over just to see that smile beam brightly again.  It's another kind of reconnection.  It's the reconnection of a mother and daughter.  It's a different type of stepping back.  It's a look at my mother before she married.  At the end of the day, it was well worth it.