Time Warp
Time Warp
DAWNE ZACHARIAS
When the phone rang we had just fallen asleep after an evening of watching our favorite movie stars. My husband was the one who answered the call, I watched him as he asked, what happen? His eyes filling up with tears I quickly came to his side softly holding his free hand. When he said, thanks for letting us know, we will be in touch, I knew the phone call would be short and I remained patiently supportive. After the call, He said, “Mom just died of a heart attack.” I hugged him, we sat down on the couch holding each other and sobbing as he shared the information given to him.
“Dad is distraught, and someone needs to sit with him. Plans are already being made for the funeral, it will be next Wednesday at 2:00 PM at the Renewal Church, downtown Memphis, Tennessee”, his voice breaking as he spoke.
“They said they had to go”, he continued, “because, the coroner had just arrived and was ready to take mom’s body to the Funeral Home." It was like a swinging door with the paramedics leaving and the Coroner coming, then the police thereafter, requiring a formal report.
"It all seemed almost unreal,” he said in disbelief.
After sharing some of our most wonderful stories about this remarkable woman we went back to an opened bed and tried to sleep.
As I was drifting off, my mind took me back many years ago, to the day my own mother passed away.
Mom had Ovarian Cancer and it had spread into the Peritoneal Cavity. They tried to operate and remove the cancer but when she was opened it was noted that the cancer had seeded every area of the cavity and he had no other choice but to close her back up. My grandmother came to stay with us during the last few months of my mom’s illness. She cooked meals and did the laundry, her tender touch kept us on a normal schedule for school, even though death seemed so close, Gram made it seem like it was just part of life and all life has an end, she would say. The day she passed away I was at school. The Principle called me down to his office and told me that I needed to go right home, Gram had called and said she would be outside waiting in the car and to come out the front doors. She was there….
My thoughts of my husband returned to me and I awoke with a start and realized that I wanted to be like my Gram was for me that day, being there at a time when emotion would define the memory. I looked at the time and realized it was just 1:00 am, my husband was in a peaceful sleep and I did not want to wake him, so I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, my mind was at work.
As I thought about what was ahead with his Mom’s passing, I quietly rolled out of bed and left the bedroom. I had an idea. I went into the Study and took out all of the pictures that we had from his growing up years. Pictures of His Mom and him together, and other family times of fun and happiness, reunions, and her Thanksgiving Dinners. I began to assemble these together into a book of remembrance. Letters written describing the past years’ events in her Christmas cards were also included, her letters of bringing in the new year with hope for good things to come were a comfort to me as I sat on the floor reading them. I put together a homemade cloth covered notebook with her picture in the front, a ruffle of blue eyelet surrounded her picture. It was becoming her own message of comfort she had woven in a tapestry that was shared page by page. The book seemed to take on a life of its own and ordered naturally through time. I felt so much joy in my heart with what I had done. But really it was what she had done for her family. A legacy we could make happen in our own lives. I took the book upstairs and put it on his bedside table. It was almost 7 am when I looked at the clock. The new day had arrived. I was ready.
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