As my mother and I drove to the airport after her two-week visit, we made a joke about an annoying thing my grandma used to do. My mom chuckled and then said, "You know, I wish I hadn't let little things like that bug me so much. I don't know, maybe that doesn't make sense." But it does make sense to me. My mom and I haven't always had the easiest time getting along. We have different personalities and lifestyles, and I have my dad's impatience. But in recent years we've learned to do OK together and get along on our trips.
I said goodbye to her at the security gate and then started to walk away. And by the time I got to the car, I was crying.
My mom is getting older, and I get nervous sometimes that when we say goodbye, it could be the last time. Her health isn't the best, and our trips are infrequent. My parents live in Illinois, and the Army is never going to put us very close to them.
My neighbor in Germany, her mother died while she was pregnant. That bothers me. I think about it often and worry, worry that my parents are old and might not have as much time as I'd like with their grandchildren. And we live 900 miles away from them.
It weighs on me at times. And I cried when I said goodbye.
Some of the things my mom does drive me nuts. But someday she's not going to be around to do them.
I cried when I dropped my mother off at the airport but not when I dropped my husband off for deployment. How's that for a special kind of crazy?
