Ghosts
5:15 p.m. - 2002-08-10


A few days after my mother died, my dad had a dream about her that was so clear and real. In the dream she turned to him and smiled her beautiful smile. Of course, then he woke up and was crushed by the knowledge that he will never see that smile again. I had my own incident of this kind today when I was out driving with my daughter and some nieces and a car turned toward me on the left. My brain registered the woman in it as my mother and I thought, "oh, there's Cindy" and then I remembered.

When I was a little girl I would sometimes lie in bed at night and be afraid of losing my parents, especially my mother. I would try to figure out how old I would be when she died (she would die at the age of 100, I was sure) and how many years away that was. Knowing I had 70 more years to go was comforting to me. I only wish that had been true.

For her memorial service we had a lovely dinner in the local Hilton hotel. Many relatives came and a good time was had by all. I saw cousins I had not seen in 30 years. But most important of all, my dad was pleased at how nice the evening was, how nice a send off it was for my beautiful, elegant mother.

I also found out that the family is more varied than I thought. Here is list of some of the occupations of assorted cousins and relatives:

Lawyer and law enforcement officer

Ceo of some company or other

Owner of advertising agency

Owner of printing company

Professional lady wrestler

Contractor

Labor and Delivery nurse

Municipal maintenance worker

Secretary (whoops, I mean executive assistant)

Computer nerd

Accountant

Head of Chemistry department at large university

Bookkeeper

Teacher at New England prep school

Housewife and mother to adorable kiddies

Mailman (in the old days before they started shooting the place up)

Commercial Fisherman

High Fashion Model

Plasterer

Police Dispatcher

My favorite, of course, is my cousin's daughter who is a wrestler for the WWE.