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Davey

July 1st Happy Birthday Mom

By the time they get to be my age, any people have lost their parents. I’m one of them. I have to reflect on the woman I called mom. She was a wonderful hostess, a wonderfully creative hard working woman. I’m sure others remember her for different things.

I always remember the car trips I took with my mom once I reached college age. There were only two, so I can only guess why they’ve held importance for me. Possibly because it was one of the few, and I do mean countable on one hand, times we were ever alone for any length of time.

One trip I remember, we were making the drive from Little Rock to LA. This time we weren’t headed straight for Shreveport, we were going to see other family members she knew and I’d never met.

She shared the driving with me, and never complained about my driving. We enjoyed talking, singing and silence equally. Stopping to eat was pleasantly uneventful, except that I got to make funny and she was a delightfully easy audience. I could always make her laugh.

We crossed into LA and drove through Shreveport. I remember I was very ready to stop and sleep at one of our relative’s homes, but we drove on. And on. And on. Then we drove on. I remember having repeated questions concerning her memory of where we were headed and suggestions that we turn around because there were no street lights or any kind of lights to tell us where we were or signs to tell us how close/far we were from the destination. Honestly I was certain she’d gotten lost and was going to strand us somewhere in the boonies with no gas and no gas station in walking distance.

yes, this was in the 1970s. There were no cell phones, there was no GPS, we were on our own.

Finally, she said for me to keep my eyes open for a street light. Then suddenly, just ahead of us was a 60 watt light bulb suspended from a wire and plugged into an extension cord. I didn’t see the extension cord or that the light was suspended from a wire until we’d passed the light. That’s dark it was.

Once we passed the “street light” Mom finally put on her brights and see the first left. We made our way down the roughly paved street and turned into a dirt something where she stopped the car. It was about 10pm, still her relations where so welcoming to both of us and seemingly excited to see her, and me by default.

We actually stayed there 2 days, saw other relatives. Let early the morning of our return trip and got home without a hitch.

That trip to LA, just me and mom going to a place I’d never been forced me to trust her as a person of safety. Which was something I’d never thought about before. She was a great traveling companion and I really wish I’d taken more trips with her to visit her Louisiana family. I think there were facets of her as a woman I missed because I moved away right after college, and though I visited, and then my husband and I visited, then we and my daughter(s) visited, it just wasn’t the same.

She died of a heart attack on December 25th 1999 at a Christmas Party hosted by sister in MS.

I’m sorry I didn’t travel that year. I was in CA.

She was a gentlewoman and a gentle woman.

I miss her.