Today my mum phoned me, 3 times on my mobile and when I saw the missed calls my heart sank. She never calls my mobile, says it takes too long to dial all those numbers.She is convinced that she will not see me again that she will die before we return from our adventure. So with a heavy heart I called her, would she be there? would she be sober?
She eventually answered the phone, but the house my parents live in is tall and thin and going up and down the very steep stairs is a bit precarious, but there she was on the other end of the phone.
I asked her what was wrong, what did she want and that I was going to phone her on thursday night and friday morning before we left, and all of a sudden this voice came, from a lady, not the one I know, not the one who can be vicious and mean, and nasty and unkind and drunk and abusive, but also kind and funny....the voice of a frightened old lady came down the phone
"I want to ask you if you will promise me something" she said, "I want you to promise that you will look after your dad if anything happends to me".
What can you say? Of course I said yes and reassured her that nothing would happen to her, we are coming back next xmas , and she is only 75,,,,but deep down in my heart, I also think that maybe she is right, maybe she wont be here, and now I have promised to look after my dad...its an easy thing to say , but harder to do.
All of a sudden, my parents are old, and I am leaving them,I normally only see them about once a year, but now I want to see them more, I want to see them again beforre I go. I saw them 2 weeks ago, and we(my daughters, grandaughter and myself) looked great healthy, tanned and fit and my parents(especially my mum) looked old grey and old, it was a real shock just how little they had become: small voice, small appitites, and sadly for my mum small minded still, but still I shall miss them.
