Sometimes one year can feel like a very long time, while in the same instance feel like yesterday 365 days ago.
I think time, when you’re no longer creating it, is probably more like a web with too many starting points to really know where the beginning ends. I suppose this network of ideas and feelings and thoughts would be the most accurate description of what memories might look like.
The very last time I spoke to you on FaceTime you told me a story about when I was little. A memory from my childhood that I had forgotten in the busy life I lead, creating time.
You laughed as you told me how you would automatically say ‘no’ when your children asked you something. You explained that one day you had an epiphany, and decided way back then you would consciously change your response to ‘maybe’, always, until you’d had a chance to think about what was being asked, and what you were required to give.
I was very young when you changed your answer to ‘maybe’, about 4 or 5, and you told me how my sister would send me in to you, as the youngest child, to ask you for the things we wanted. You explained she said I could get a yes from you, when the answer was usually a no. — I like to think it’s because my sister believes I’m more charming, but I’m not sure that’s entirely true.
You would always answer ‘Maybe’, and I would run away excitedly to return to my sister, hiding around the corner, exclaiming you said ‘Maybe!’ because in my young mind, if it wasn’t a ‘No’ well then it simply must be a ‘Yes!’. You would laugh at my antics, then most often say ‘Yes’ after all of that.
I laughed as you told me that story. Creating memories from a memory, although I didn’t know it at the time.
I went to see you today, in Deep Bay where you are now free, swimming among the waves. You’ve probably been to Hawaii and back, and all around the Gulf Islands in this past year. At least, I hope you have.
I brought your grandson with me to say ‘Hi!’ today. He says that now, in his small, cheerful voice. He also says ‘Bumpa’ for ‘Grandpa’, which I think you would have laughed roariously about. I wish you could see him now, a little boy instead of a baby like he was when you held him for the first, and last, time. I think we would have had a lot to talk about, raising a boy. He has your ears. He also wears your cowboy hat around the house quite comfortably saying “Yee-haw!” as best he can. I like to think that even though he doesn’t remember your visit with him, he still misses you. His Bumpa.
I receive at least one piece of your mail every day, waiting for me, in a tiny mailbox when I get home from work. “Me on behalf of You” is what it normally says. Often from some vendor, tax department, lawyer, notary, accountant. They write about you as though you were a business that I’m now responsible for closing, or liquidating, or collecting, or paying. These people send me a lot of mail about you. I suppose that means you lived a full life, with all the things you weren’t allowed to take with you when you died: whoever is in charge of this dying business didn’t say ‘Maybe’ to the somethings I’m sure we all would want to take with us when we go.
I cried harder last night than I have in a very long time…The kind of crying where you fall asleep smelling cool rain on hot pavement. It felt good to cry because I hadn’t really sobbed about you leaving until then. –“Stiff upper lip!” you would say, and I would keep marching like a good little soldier, afraid to show a chink in my armour. Afraid to feel what someone my age should feel when they lose a parent because vulnerability creates a feeling of weakness in me.
I asked you today, as your grandson and I looked out to you, floating effortlessly in the salty water of the Bay, if I’ll get to see you again some day. You didn’t really answer me, so I guess that makes it a maybe…
Which I’ll choose to take as a Yes.
Love, your daughter,
Fumbling Mom