SITTING HERE WORRYING

For the first time that I can remember, Mom was not present at Christmas day.  Being she is 94, I know how fragile life is for her. For a woman her age who survived cancer, and raising me, she is in remarkable shape.

She had a scare on Christmas Eve when she went home after dinner. Feeling faint, she tried to grab onto a rolling table and fell on the floor.

The next day, Christmas day, she sent her companion and boy toy: Henry over to my niece Laurie’s house where all the family had gathered for a delicious Holiday feast prepared by Laurie and Gerard. Henry was carrying a cake Mom made and he said that she wasn’t feeling well and wanted to stay in her own house in case she needed anything. So we packed Henry off with two dinner plates filled and wished him well.

To make a long story short, she was in pain and couldn’t sleep. Henry called the doctor who ordered Mom into the hospital through the emergency ward. There I met her among slews of workers who were hurt on the job, auto accident people who were traumatized, and other assortments of injuries requiring immediate help.

After hours of waiting, testing and scanning, we are still waiting for results, but Mom will stay overnight for observation. Her cat scan showed everything is fine, but she does have an infection of the urinary tract and that may have been the problem. They are also awaiting the results of x-rays of her back and head to be sure she is not suffering form fractures or breaks.

I was all set to give Henry a few thoughts about telling us more when I find out from Mom that it was her idea not to tell us the whole truth when Henry came over with the cake.

“I didn’t want to ruin everyone’s Christmas!” were her words.

But I explained to Mom that if we had continued to have a great time and she had something happen to her that was worst, we would all have had a guilt complex a mile long for the rest of our lives!