Anniversary

It was forty years ago today that my mother came home from the hospital to tell us that Dad died. She said "Daddy isn't coming home." None of us ever called Dad "Daddy," but that's what she said.

We were playing in the yard when she pulled up. The neighbor had driven her back from the hospital, and they parked on the street instead of pulling in the drive. I knew right away something wasn't right, and figured out he had died. She talked to us kind of like we didn't know what it was to die; But we did.

Everything was a blur after that with all of the neighbors coming over all crying and moving around. Food was turning up in the kitchen. I remember Mrs Adams came over. She was the wife of a doctor that went to our church. She came in the back door wailing and carrying on so, with an arm load of grocery bags, and started unpacking the cans of food, and jars of stuff. It really was an odd sight, I thought. None of it went together. She must have run through the ailes and threw a bunch of stuff in the cart. I think she pulled out 10 heads of lettuce out of one bag. There were enormous amounts of each item. Even at the age of 10, it didn't make much sense.

With all of the stuff I was watching, it was very clear that life was going to be very different from that day on. Mom was at that time, like most Moms; A housewife. She was going to have to get a job, and be both Mom and Dad. Things weren't that easy before, but I knew it was going to get even harder. Both my brother and I, in one day, had to grow up faster than we should have. My other two brothers were older and even though it was hard for them, they had some years of maturity that we lacked. They were able to help her in ways that we couldn't.

It was rough at times, but we all came through okay and now, forty years later, Mom is gone, one brother is walking around with the aches and pains of an old man, and the others and myself have a few more aches and pains than we would like. Mrs Adams died from alzheimers. Most of the neighbors from back then have passed away, and even some of the kids I grew up with.

It seems like yesterday, I was running around in the back yard without a care in the world and the future was anything I could imagine and more. I can't believe forty years have passed. Time is that of a blink of an eye.