After 3 years, I don’t think of her as often as I did. But memories pop. Like this past weekend.
Friday was Valentine’s Day and we traveled to St. George. We had to drop the Ford at the dealers for a software upgrade then traveled on south. We were headed to Best Buy, where Betty had acquired her last laptop. We went to get Tracy a new cell phone. He has been using the phone I bought for her to use the last 6 months of her life.
We also ordered a new laptop for me. My Acer is slowly giving up. The local repair shop restored it last October and found the on/off switch is in bad shape and will sometime soon give up. So, we took care of both issues. We had anticipated it would take at least 2 hours to complete these errands, but not so.
We had planned on going out for Valentine’s lunch, but it was an hour too early. We paid a visit to our regular haunt in St. George, the Barnes and Noble Book Store. We always enjoy hunting for something special. When we pulled into the parking lot of the mall – there was the See’s Candy Shop – her favorite place and the cause of her last accident (two years before her passing).
She was riding her scooter, in the rain, while waiting for her van to be repaired and decided to visit the Sees candy store across the street. She was on the corner at the intersection waiting for the light to change. When it did, she mis-calculated and ran one wheel of the scooter off the edge causing it to flip. She fell on her left shoulder and broke it. At 92, it was the beginning of the end for her. Therapy and rehab were the focus of her life for the next 8 months. While in the hospital her blood work showed she had level 4 ovarian cancer. She died 8 months after that.
When done in the bookstore we went back to the car to decide where to eat. We had talked about Black Bear Diner, but ended up at the Olive Garden (we don’t have one in our community). More irony, it was the place where momma always took me to lunch when she still could. We had a lovely lunch and conversation about us, our store and what we wanted to accomplish in the coming year. And I thought of her again before we left the restaurant.
We ended the day at home sharing valentine day cards, the rest of the wine and chocolates. Russell Stover – her favorite. Hard not to accept her presence for the day. Thanks for the memories.
Until next time –