Saturday, August 13, 2016

The Body in the Trunk - and Missing Mom

                I had quite a few challenges ahead of me the year that I started my blog.  I don't recall what happened to our car, but there was some kind of accident that effected the trunk. We made do with a temporary repair job until we had the finances to get a better fix.  Thus whenever we would drive (particularly over bumps) there would be this rattling noise that made it sound as though there were something heavy being thrown around.  It was the car I drove and therefore just dealt with the distraction mainly by ignoring it.

                My mom happened to be a passenger one particular day in October.  She asked me about the sound and I joked that it sounded like a dead body in my trunk.  By then mom's memory was really going downhill.  Though both of my brothers were in denial about mom having been that far gone, both Kayla and I had agreed that we needed to either bring somebody in to be a full time companion or else consider assisted living - which I had already started looking into - which is when I learned that my brothers didn't want to accept that.

                Though mom seemed to have blocked out everything else that day, she somehow remembered my comment about the dead body!  I think she accepted as a joke at first, but after her third comment, I began to wonder.  (You can find my original post and conversation here) I have no first-hand account of being in a car in which a body is in the trunk, but I have seen many comical situations in which a dead body seemingly causes a lot of noise as it's being rolled around in said trunk.



                A new family has moved into our ward.  It was announced in priesthood that the family would need assistance moving in.  Roland loaded the hand cart into the car in order to help.  The hand truck doesn't fit into our car all the way.  He had it sticking out of the trunk and held the door down with bungee cord.  I laughed as we drove to the house.  The sound was similar to the one in which I had made the "dead body" comment.  I don't know why Roland hadn't heard it before.  Jenna pretty much has the entire story memorized.       

                I miss my mom a lot.  I miss her laugh.  The way she talked.  I miss her smile.

                Her house was central point for get-togethers. Patrick and Sunny lived about 10 miles south, Kayla about 10 miles west, and Roland and I were about 10 miles north. Corey and I had an awfully hard time letting go of the house.

                Mom enjoyed playing games. For me it was Scrabble or Upwords - mostly upwards.  She played cribbage and other card games with Patrick.  For Corey, it was Trivial Pursuit.  And with Kayla, they did Jumbles and sometimes crosswords. We tried playing games with her after her memory was gone.  It was more challenging for us just to have to explain the rules each time.  We didn't bother keeping score anymore.  There wasn't any point.  It was hard to see our "game rival" disappear. 

                I'm looking forward to the day that I will see both of my parents again.  I'm hoping we'll be able to play games again.    


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