I'm thinking about my mother

I was talking with a good friend from New Jersey today and told her about coming home for Christmas after Bern and I had been married and I had grown a beard.

My father took one look at me in the door and went outside in bedroom slippers into the snow.

I said to my mother, "will Dad be alright?"

And she said, "Oh, don't worry about him."

My friend said, "So you got your world view from your mother."

That really shocked me.

But she was right.

My mother was laid-back and pretty much disconnected from the world.

And so am I.

I appreciate Mags for teaching me that.

My mother died at 63. I was a junior in college and had to go home to be with her.

I went to Snork Roberts, my priest and told him I might not be able to drive the over 200 miles home--WV is a big state. He fully vested and gave me communion and prayers for healing and I did it.

I fed her ice-cream in the hospital room and I was with her when she died, along with my Dad.

She was from a large family, as my father was, and I was an only child.

Go figure.

I have only vague memories of her. It was so long ago.

She never met her grand-children.

But she was always calm while my father was always tense.

I am like her.

I'm thinking of Cleo Jones Bradley today.

Rest in Peace, Mom.