One day, many years ago when I was a kid, I was
walking through our house and it seemed strangely quiet. I knew my brother was
not home but I did not know where the others were. It was late afternoon and I
had just gotten home from school.
“Well it’s too early for dad to be home from work,”
I thought. “Mom must be at the neighbor’s house. So Cheryl is probably with
her.”
I walked through a short little hallway area to a door
which led into our garage.
“It looks like I have the run of the house,” I
chuckled to myself and pulled the door open.
Suddenly a figure jumped toward me from the shadows
shouting, “Booo!!!”
I leaped in fear… surprised and startled, heart
racing, skin tingling, frontal cortex on high alert.
(…Actually, I have no idea what the frontal cortex
does when a person is startled but it seemed like a nice little touch, didn’t
it?)
It took a second but I quickly recognized my mother’s
smiling face. She laughed and said, “Gotcha!”
I regained my composure and said, “No you didn’t. I
knew you were there.”
She continued to laugh, knowingly, and said, “Oh no.
I got you.”
You might be thinking, “What kind of mom would do
such a thing to her dear, precious, adorable, exceptionally bright son? …Or to
Dan too, for that matter?”
A fantastic mom—a wonderful mom. That’s who!
I could provide all kinds of sentimental and
tender-hearted reasons why I miss my mom. But she was fun, silly and playful. And
that’s part of why I miss her, too.
#MothersDayWeekend
P.S. With this story from my childhood in mind, are
the pieces of the puzzle falling into place? Are you beginning to see, now?
