My Mom Deserves Respect

She went to nursing school while she was raising 3 kids and my dad. Then after she left my dad she built a new life for herself and has done quite well. She was a charge nurse and she actually would have been a nurse practicioner but it was not "legal" to be one in those days. In the early 90's she hurt her back at work and had to quit working due to this injury compounded with severe arthritis.

Soon after this my granny had a stroke and became a total care patient. If it had not been for my mom's expert nursing skills she would have died more than once. Mommy took care of her mom, my aunt Mary Ann who is retarded and uncle Bud who requires supervision over his affairs for about 5 years before granny finally passed on. Granny never did get well enough to get out of bed or even turn herself for that matter but Mommy always made sure that she got the best of care.

Around the time that my Grandma died, my great-aunt Edna died. Mom was closer to Edna than anybody else in the world. Edna's son Billy is also retarded so in addition to taking care of Mary Ann, she started to care for Billy. Also it was my great aunt's wish that mommy take care of Edna's ex-husband Bill who was in a private nursing home so my mom also took on that responsibility. All the while suffering from her arthritis and several other medical problems that make life difficult for anyone to live - much less someone taking care of 4 dependent adults.

Today Mary Ann lives in an apartment behind my mom's house. Billy and Bud live together and keep each other amused while mommy oversees the details of their lives. To add on more stress her arthritis worsens and she won't allow anyone to help her with anything.

For all these things and more than I can write in one blog My Mom Deserves My Respect.

Dapple

Dapple was my mom's all time favorite dog. She was a Dalmatian. I named her, the name means "spots". Mommy loved Dapple and Dapple loved her. The whole time my mom would be babytalking her, Dapple would be grunting and moaning and talking back.

One day my mom way laying out in the sun (One of her favorite pasttimes) when she felt something warm and wet plop down on her belly. She looked down to see a dead bird lying there and Dapple right beside it smiling at her. Dapple was giving her a gift! To say that my mom didn't appreciate the gift was an understatement! She squealed, flung the bird off and jumped up expressing her full and unbounded rage at Dapple. Dapple had the good sense to slink away.

After that my mom never sunbathed on the patio again - she always laid out on the balcony after that.

note: this blog made my mom mad. I wrote it to be funny but she didn't see the humor in it. It still seems harmless enough to me....?

Floydsie

My mom loves talking birds. She had several over the years. Her favorite was Floyd. Floyd was a scarlett macaw who she named after her dad. He had a whole room to himself and even though there was a cage in there, he usually lived on top of it. Mommy and Floyd spent hours together. There was even a tv in their room.

Floyd never did learn to talk. He just made a kind of squawking,screeching noise (like something you would expect one of those flying dinosaurs to make). Consequently we called him the $1200 dud! He had all kinds of treats but the most unusual thing he liked was to chew on cigars. Personally I was kind of afraid of Floyd so I didn't spend much time with him.

One day my mom put Floyd and his cage out on the balcony. A short time later Bobby came in and asked me if Floyd was SUPPOSED to be out on the balcony. I said "yes, what do you mean SUPPOSED?" He told me Floyd was not there. I said, "Oh God, don't say that!" and I ran out to the balcony to see. Floyd was nowhere to be found.

One of the hardest things I ever had to do was tell my mom that Floyd was not there. She immediately went to look for him and she actually found him about 1/2 a mile from the house in a very tall tree. She tried her best to talk him down to no avail. He flew away. That night there was a raging storm and we never saw Floyd again. She ran an ad in the paper offering a huge reward, but nothing came out of it. There were rumors that someone up Mill Creek had him but to the best of my knowledge nobody ever saw Floydsie again.

That was a terrible day.

Saturday

Every Saturday my mom would allow us the priveledge of sleeping in until 8 a.m. Then we had to get up and eat our breakfast and by 9 o'clock be cleaning the house. We would usually finish around 11 or 12 unless she wanted something special cleaned then we would be half the day.

After the house was clean if nothing else was going on we would head to Huntington to spend the day shopping. I became a professional shopper in those years. A skill which has helped me greatly since I have been working retail. We would usually start of with dinner at Bonanza or The Kings Table. (a buffet which suited our family perfectly) Then we would make our rounds of favorite stores and shops and just generally buy stuff.

After we got home we would have a fashion show for my dad so that he could see what his money bought. Then we were allowed to stay up late (our bedtime was 9 p.m. which was strictly enforced) and watch CHILLER. Those nights with Dracula and Frankenstein and the Wolfman were awesome. Sometimes there would be a Vincent Price movie or the Invisible Man.

Sunday Morning Breakfast

Our Family never did eat meals together except for one - Sunday Morning Breakfast. It was a big deal every week and my mom would cook a feast that most families wouldn't have once a year much less once a week. She, of course, did most of the work although sometimes my dad would pitch in (that was about the only thing he ever did around the house). We kids helped enough to know how to fix a breakfast but most of that splendid weekly feast was up to her.

Here is a typical menu: 2 or 3 pans of biscuits (homemade), gravy, fried potatoes, eggs, sausage and or bacon and or ham. Cow butter, various jellies and jams and marmalades and of course molasses. Sometimes we would have fried chicken with breakfast gravy over it (one of my favorites to this day!) There were always sliced tomatoes because my mom loved them with gravy over them. (a taste I never did aquire) Some Sundays we would have either ham or porkchops with redeye gravy. Redeye gravy is delicious!(and I still can't make it to this day. It is made from pork drippings, coffee, salt and pepper - mmm-mmm good) Occasionally we would have pancakes but mostly we wanted the grand fare that is mentioned before.

One time she invited my stepdaughters over for Sunday Morning Breakfast. They walked in and exclaimed, "This is better than Shoney's"!

and it was.

A Jerry Springer Moment

One time I had to ID a guy for beer. He handed me his license and in the picture he was a WOMAN! My eyebrows shot up and I contained my smile as I handed back his license and rang up his beer.

He started laughing and said most people didn't believe that the license was his.

I told him the truth. "I can tell it's you AND you look better as a woman. My only question is, is it legal to dress as a woman on your license when you are a man?"

He said "well they let me do it!"

enough said.

The Wallet

My dad only kept one present that I gave him in all the years he was alive. I bought him expensive gifts, cheap gifts and even made him a few. The one thing that he kept was a check that I gave him for $1,000,000. I found it when I was going through his wallet when I was taking care of him before he died.

I gave him that check, I think, for Father's Day one year. I handed him the check and I told him that he couldn't cash it because it would bounce. I told him that as soon as I made $300 and deposited it, he could cash the check. He smiled and told me that it would be worth it to him to give me the $300 so that he could go ahead and collect the money.

I told him, "No, you'll just have to wait, I earned that much and I am going to earn the rest myself!"

Of course, I never did make that $300. But he kept the check.