Looking Back On That Fateful Day...

Mom was sitting on the couch when I arrived for my Cokes. I noticed she had a brace on her foot and she was sitting kind of odd. She always hides her obesity, but she was letting it show that day. Her belly was hanging over her belt.

Dad was in a hurry and was about to go pickup the Grand Kids in Auburn to take them to our pond in god's country. They were going to do a little fishing. The day seemed innocent and normal enough.

"Come on," my father told my mother. "Let me help you get back in the bed. I've got to run."

"I'll see y'all," I said loudly as I was opening the back door of my parent's house.

"Don't forget your Cokes and your cigars," mom said as my father helped her up off the couch.

The phone was ringing when I walked into my house after I drove home.

"Your mother's dead," my father told me. "I just wanted to tell you first as you are the closest to her."

"What happened?" I asked completely stunned and flabbergasted. "She was fine a few minutes ago!"

"She just collapsed on the floor of her bedroom and died." dad told me. "The paramedics are on their way."

I went into full panic attack mode and had to sit down. I told my father I would be back over to their house when I had gathered my wits about me.

Visitation went on for 3 hours. There was a line going around the funeral home that had formed. Mom was an elementary school teacher for over twenty years. Many of the visits she got was from her former students.

My very talented uncle played the guitar and sang a song he wrote about my mother at the funeral. Mom was buried with her ashes in a little ornate box in Waverly, Alabama surrounded by friends and family.