Memories of Mom Monday, November 7, 2016

On October 29, 2016, my life changed forever.  My Mom, Linda Dobbs Williams passed away at 8:24 p.m.  In an instant, I lost my best friend, my confidante and my biggest support/fan.  My Mom was so many things to me and for me and I will miss her dearly.  For some of you that have known my mom/me for awhile know that while my Mom had many pictures displayed, she had many snapshots that were placed into an old hard sided suitcase.  I found that it helped a little bit to go back through her pictures.  There were many memories that I shared that were captured in those pictures.  There are so many memories in there, but also memories that are not captured in those snapshots.  I thought that I would take Mondays for the next few weeks and share some of those memories.  This serves two purposes for me.  The first is that it gives me a chance to share some wonderful memories of my Mom and allows others to share them as well, but the second is that it gives me an opportunity to relive these memories when I go back and read them.

One thing that I will share today is simply that Mom always told me not to leave or hang up the phone without saying "I love you" because you never know what the next minute or the next day or the next week or the next month may hold until you talk to or see that person again.  That held very true for me last week.  The Friday night before my Mom passed, my husband and I took Mom some Popeye's popcorn shrimp, red beans and rice and biscuit.  She had not been eating much at all, but she let me feed her some.  She ultimately ate a little less than half of the popcorn shrimp, a few bites of the red beans and rice and a few bites of the biscuit.  I knew that things were not right with her because I could not get her to verbalize any answers to my questions.  She did respond to me before I left and told me that she loved me several times and told my husband as well.  It saddens me to think that I may not hear her say those words to me again, but I take comfort knowing that she did not suffer and that I respected her wishes.  When I answered the call on Saturday late morning, I knew the call was coming and knew what the doctor was telling me.  The fact of the matter is that tomorrow is not promised and we need to hug our loved ones and tell them that we love them because you never know when it may be the last time you have that opportunity.