Mom

So it’s 1:48am. I woke up after having dreams about my Mom, who passed away a few months ago… I can’t really remember the dreams at this point, but that’s ok. Some things about Mom….

She loved romance movies and books. She had shelves and shelves of paperback romance novels. And she would spend hours reading, just content to get lost in her imagination with her coffee as company. And romance movies? Don’t even get me started. The two that I remember most were Gone With the Wind and The Thorn Birds, but there were countless others. I never understood the draw to it, but it made her happy, so that’s what mattered. 

Another thing was candles, she collected candles. And not your ordinary, boring Yankee Candle type things, I’m talking the decorative and sometimes elaborate ones. I remember one was a castle with a dragon wrapped around it. That was probably my favorite. We had a 6’ tall set of wooden shelves that we referred to as the candle rack, because it was the display area for her collection. She never burned a single candle that ever had a home on that rack. The candles she used were kept elsewhere. At one point, my father jokingly said that if she bought “one more god damn candle” that he would divorce her lol in truth, he would never deny her something that she loved, but the moment was funny. 

I don’t know if she necessarily enjoyed it, cuz I sure as hell don’t, but Mom was always cleaning and organizing. The house was always spotless. She would even clean while cooking. And, as I found out later in life, even after my sister and I were old enough to do chores and clean the house for her, she would go back and “touch things up” after we went to bed. I suppose that could mean my OCD is actually somewhat inherited, but I definitely got my cleaning habits from my father. I’m a messy cook too, and leave the clean up for after, not during. 

I miss Mom. I still go to call her with random questions or text her cute pics of the dogs. Life is short and unfair in situations like this.  But, as evidenced by my dreams and this post, her memory does live on. Gone but not forgotten. I love you, Mom. ❤️