It is January, I need to drive West to spend the last days with my mom. We need food and prescriptions for the 2500 mile trip. As I wait for my prescription, Mom appears in my mind. No time for shopping, I need to get home. Paying for the prescription, I leave.

I walk in the door and Bart is leaving, “I have some errands to run, be back later!”

“A text arrived from my sister, it is a picture of my mom, she looks dead already!”

“Sorry, I will be back soon!”

Believing my mom can hang on, I hope! Twenty minutes later another text comes. She is gone.

WHAT DO I DO?  I am alone 2500 miles from family. WHAT DO I DO? My sister calls, “The pastor is here and he wants to know, what is the most important thing about Mom?”

“SHE CAME AND FOUND US!!!!!!”

*****

Forty-seven years earlier, my friend says, “It looks like you are moving.”

“NO, WE AREN’T!” I turn and see a U-Haul behind a station wagon and my dad is packing. Very soon I am in the third seat, leaning out the window saying goodbye, “I will write to you!”

Dad says, “NO, YOU WON’T!”

Everyone is in the car except…  “Where’s Mom?”