Sweet Memories of Mom

Mom and Mike Dec. 2007

One of the sweetest stories about my Mom happened just a few months before she went into the hospital and then a nursing home.  Mom liked to get in and out of only side of the bed.  Of course the side changed from time to time but when she decided on a side she wanted to get in on, it didn’t change for weeks or months.  The choices were the window side of her bed or the television side of her bed. 

On this particular night Mike had gone down to check on Mom, as he did every night, when he got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.  He found Mom sitting on the window side of her bed in the dark.  He talked to her about how it was night and she should sleep.  He asked if could help her get back into bed.  She said “please” so he helped her stand up to walk around the bed to the television side of the bed.  When she got there she didn’t seem to want to get in bed and instead laid her head on Mike’s shoulder.  Mike said “Can I help you back into bed?”  The reply was in a few minutes.   Mike waited what he said was 10 minutes so I am certain it was at least 5 minutes.  He asked again “May I help you get back into your bed?”  Now she decided the answer was “Yes” so Mike helped her back in bed.

In the morning Mike told me about his interesting encounter with my Mom during the night.  The morning drive to the day care center took about 15-20 minutes.  As I was driving my Mom to her day care in the morning she said to me, “I have a man who is interested in me.”  I asked her “does he work at the center (day care)?”  “No,” she replied.  We went a little further down the road and Mom said to me “I have a man who wants to marry me!”  She was so excited in her speech.  Again I asked “does he work at the center?”  “No,” was the reply.  When we pulled into the center’s parking lot she again stated “I have a man who wants me to marry him!”  I asked “does he work at the center?” Her reply was “No, he lives at the house I live in.  You know him, you live here too!”  Well I took my Mom in and settled her down for the day and got in my car to go to work.  I immediately called Mike and demanded to know how long he had been cheating on me?  Silence at the other end of the phone.  Then I started laughing and told him the story.  90 years old and falling in love with her son-in-law!