TWO PINK ROSES

When I think back to my childhood I can't remember being fed by my mother although I know she did feed me. I can remember her sitting down at the sewing machine and sewing clothes for me and for my dolls.  I can remember just a few months ago I took her flowers and there were two roses mixed with other varieties.  My mother looked at the two roses and said, “Rita, those two roses are me and you.”  As the end comes for our parents it seems that memories are all that we have left.  My mother has been diagnosed with Aortic Stenosis and the only cure is open-heart surgery.  However, she is too week from a blood infection so she cannot have the surgery.  At the hospital she told the doctors she did not want to have open heart surgery so I guess in a way, she also had a say in the decision.  All the same, it is very difficult to see her health decline each day.  

She now lies in her hospital bed with the care of Hospice and barely speaks.  She looks at me with deep concentration when I go to see her.  Yesterday she stared at me for the longest time so I looked back at her.  A few minutes into the deep concentration I ask her what she was thinking.  She said in a very slow voice "you are pretty".  As I felt a tear roll down my face I reminded her that I looked like her and that she was beautiful.  She smiled a little.  She then went back to sleep.  Tonight as I fed her meal to her I realized this is another memory to cherish.  She will not be with us much longer so it is imperative to cherish all the past memories as well as the future ones with her.  I may not remember my mother feeding me as a child but I will always remember feeding her as an adult.