Stubborn Old Ladies

So day before yesterday, about 7 in the evening, my mom started blowing up my cell phone. I had volunteered to work over so I just kept cutting off the ringer, but her face continued to dance across my screen over and over. Groaning inside, wondering who had died because of her persistence, I delayed calling her back until after I had clocked out and wolfed down a little dinner (it was after 8pm after all and I was starving!). So finally I called her back, it wasn’t Mom that answered, it was my stepdad, my mom had had a heart attack. It hit me a lot harder than I had ever imagined it would, I’ve pretty much become numb to death now, but the reality of the possibility was to say the least, unsettling. She had refused to stay in the hospital so she was home, sitting in her worn out overstuffed old lady chair, huddled under blankets, very much alive. I talked to her for only a few minutes, which was a red flag right there that she didn’t feel well and you would know that if you have EVER had the opportunity to chat with her. I called her again yesterday after work to check up on her and she sounded like her old chipper self again, sitting in front of the TV, munching on a cookie. Yay! But then another groan, she kept me on the phone for almost an hour, hence why I try to avoid her calls and limit our conversation to only once a week or so. I keep telling her she needs to learn how to text, she’d hear more from all of my brood, but she’s old fashioned I guess (But Mom, nobody TALKS anymore). So anyway, at least I know where I get my stubbornness from, I’ve had to sign that little paper before myself, the one that says you agree not to sue if you die because you ditched the hospital before they wanted you to. Mom said she had a mild heart attack, what the heck is a “mild” attack?! Your heart turns on you and causes serious problems, how can you ever conceivably call this mild? Not her first, but let’s hope her last. She said, “I may not make it through the night”, so I told her that she would positively outlive us all, but she had better keep her butt right there in that chair! She’s no spring chicken definitely, but I’ve gotten quite used to having her around, always there hovering somewhere in the background. She loves me, one of the few people in my life that I know for a fact will always love me and I love her, as crazy as she can make me sometimes and that’s probably the exact same thing my kids say about me! There’s not many of us left anymore. I tease my son and tell him that if he doesn’t have his own son one day, our family name dies with him, but no pressure! Of course I hope he waits for quite a while before he procreates, he’s only 22 and still not settled into life, but it is the truth, he is the last hope, it’s a little sad really, but I haven’t given up. There’s always a tomorrow for us all, even stubborn old ladies!

Lacey ☮