Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Old Man Over Seas














































My father has decided to stay in India. If last weeks troubles didn't point him towards home nothing will. I miss him a lot. He is a character to say the least. He has always been up for an adventure. He moved to India at the age of 86. How is that for moxie? Who does that sort of thing? I might(I am just saying).

I am glad I was able to bring him there. I am able to picture his cute little room that Jo so tastefully decorated. I can see him reading in the Great Room. (Do you like that Jo?) I know that he is well taken care of and much adored. It is a rule in India you know. You must adore your elders, just like they are gods. He is adorable alright. Still, we miss him.

He and my mother lived next door to us in Providence.,RI for 4 years. Of course I miss them. My husband and I bought a cute little house about 7 years ago right next to Providence College. It is in the greatest neighborhood. When it became apparent that my mother needed more help than my father could offer I felt I was the best suited child for the job. I am a care giver,it is what I do best.

We looked around for a bigger house to move us all into. Nothing thrilled us. My parents crammed into our house for 4 months. One day, my neighborbor popped her head out of her door when I was getting my boys off to school. She said, "Hey Lucy I am going to sell my house. Do you want it?"

"Yesirree Bob". So it came to be that my parents lived next door. It was perfect. Separate yet equal. Long live the Queen and so on. I miss those days. My wonderfully batty mother and my highly strung father. A pair indeed. My parents. I miss them.

Right now I am clearing their house of all their personal belongings. We decided to rent the place. I found my mother's medic alert braclet and I thought my heart was going to break. I burst into tears. Tears that I did not know were there. I was so clinical yesterday. I thought I was cold. The discovery of mom's medic alert braclet made me remember that woman who raised me. For the last years of my mom's life I have been her caretaker. I forgot that she took care of me. She took really good care of me for years.

I remember that bracelet. I remember her always having it on, like some sort of life line. I remember flipping it over on her wrist and reading it. I'd read that she was Catholic, allergic to penicillin,her eyes would be donated, her blood was type OPOS and that she was RH POS. (so am I , however the big joke in my house is that my husband's blood type is "0 Postitive" and I am "B Negative". I tell him it would be funnier if he were "B Positive" ).

About a year before I took a fancy to her medic alert bracelet my mother had written an article for The New Bedford Standard Times. It was about donating your body to Science. The article was "City Woman Donates Her Body to Science". There was a blurry photo of her. The fact that we lived in Fall River didn't fool me. I was so upset. I must have been 8. I said, "Mom.You can't" She said, "If you feel this strongly about it when I die, I won't" I said, "Do you promise?" She said, "I do."

She meant it. Mother knows best.

Things got so muddled at the end. I don't know what happened. Her body was NOT donated. It should have been. My mother graduated summa cum laude from college and died in a sea of confusion. Her mind should have been studied.