115
My mother never worried about the holidays when it was just me and
her yet, since the time she fractured her pelvis, she suddenly cared
about them and wanted to take me out for my birthday and Thanksgiving
and Christmas. This creeped me out as it was so unlike her and I
didn't know what to make of it.
Fortunately I had excuses at many of these times. As Daina would
often be taking me out to eat anyhow, she had roped me into annually
going out to eat at a restaurant where the meal was free for the one
having the birthday. She sold it as a kindness to her as it saved
her money, I only agreed as long as the restaurant didn't make a show
of it. It turned out they didn't like doing the clapping and
singing either, if they didn't have to. Daina had also found a
couple of places that would be open on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas
and invite me to go with her, rather than sitting in my apartment
eating ramen noodles. But with Nineteen Ninety-Three Daina couldn't
make these holidays anymore as she wanted to spend them with her own
mother.
Daina's mother had been recently diagnosed with lung cancer and, as
it had been caught so late, it was already past the time to treat it
beyond an attempt at chemotherapy and painkillers as the cancer
spread. Given this, Daina had a reason to be back in Denver for the
Holidays and spend time with her mother and I didn't begrudge her
that. Unfortunately this meant my ready excuse to turn down the
invitations to join my own mother for the holidays was gone. When
she again called me for this year's Thanksgiving, I debated quietly
having ramen noodles in my apartment or going out to eat even if it
did include spending time with my mother...
As she had been better behaved since her fractured pelvis, and I had
become used to eating out so frequently, I decided to agree and it
turned out we had a very good time. After we were done eating,
mother offered to have me take the wheel of her car and go for a
'drive around town or to the mountains' for the afternoon. Enjoying
such drives myself, I agreed and we were soon into the mountains and
running along the back roads. After a couple of hours of this, it
was time to head back and go our separate ways. For Christmas we did
the same thing, though given the declined weather we kept the after
dinner drive to around town.
This would become an annual event for my mother and myself for the
next few years and they added to the rare positive experiences I had
with her during my life. While she had made a number of friends
during her early years in Colorado, her penchant for always having to
degrade everyone in conversation had resulted in those friends
eventually avoiding contact with her and, as I was the child who had
helped her when she had fractured her pelvis, I suspected she saw me
as her only friend left in town. In reality, after everything she
had put me through I could never be her friend. But I could be
polite and have fun with her as long as we didn't spend too much time
together, allowing her typical behaviors to resurface.
With the holiday season coming to an end, the normal routine of life
returned and I asked Daina how her mother had been doing during her
recent visits. It turned out she was now confined to a rental
hospital bed in the first floor of their house. Daina found it
bizarre that given how terrible the relationship between her father
and mother had been when she had grown up, her father had become
dedicated to helping and caring for their mother during this time and
she wondered if he had any regrets over the way he had treated her
during their lives, or if he was just doing it out of duty. Either
way it had helped a lot as many of Daina's siblings had moved away
and Daina said she and her younger brother couldn't handle it on their own as they didn't live in Denver, themselves.
With the turn of the year came my last two semesters of College. In
fact it would be my last full semester of College and then an
abbreviated summer semester with a single class to ready me to join
the job market. After all the challenges of my childhood and all
of my early adult ordeals, I could see the end coming to this part of
my story and would finally have my chance to enter the mainstream of
life.
No comments:
Post a Comment