Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Wreath of Wrath

When Mom first moved to Merlin, she had lots of ideas about the Way Things Should Be at our house. She told me that I was to hang her "lovely" wreath on our front porch at Christmas. Being afeared of the woman, I heard and obeyed. Wound around her wreath were at least 4 strings of white mini-lights. It hadn't come that way; Mom had "improved" the wreath by adding string upon string. Trouble was, one of the middle strings had burned out. So I began the tedious chore of unwrapping the tangled mess, only to have the underlying styrofoam start crumbling in my hands! Whoa! What to do? I rushed out and bought a new wreath with a normal number of lights. Mom eyed the new wreath suspiciously. Even with failing eyesight, she KNEW. "That's NOT my wreath," she told our daughter. "What has she done with my beautiful wreath?"
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2 comments:

  1. Nancy ChisumDecember 11, 2007 at 12:10 PM

    We are forever daughters aren't we? At least that is until we lose our mothers. I lost mine the end of September and I am still fairly reeling from that. I can say this though, I did everything I could always, and especially in mom's last year to please her and I have no regrets and I have more peace now that she is gone and so I feel you will reach the same conclusion some day. I hope that day for you is far in the future.

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  2. ForsythiaDecember 14, 2007 at 8:37 AM

    Thank you for your kind comments. Mom is actually my stepmother. Dad married her when I was 9. I had lived with my paternal grandparents since the age of 6, when my parents were divorced. I kept in touch, off and on, with my "other" mother after the divorce. In her 80's, I got reacquainted with her and found that we were very much alike despite years of semi-estrangement. "Mom" adopted me at age 22, after my dad died. I don't think the adoption really took. I love her and she, me, and yet there's an emotional distance that's never been overcome. Just yesterday she was fretting losing her eyesight completely (macular degeneration) and she said, "Where will I go when I become blind? I have no family to take me in."

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