LOREAUVILLE VISIT 6/2011

I visited AMD [my mother] last week in Loreauville. Larry and I drove from Atlanta on Saturday. Wanda, my sister and I took him to NOLA on Tuesday so he could fly away to ATL on the first class ticket I bought as a surprise. I needed to spend more time with AMD.


At 87, she's frail, has lost her will to live, and does not speak. She is traumatized by the fact that her driver's license has been taken away, and full-time caretakers stay with her day and night. Her hair is thinning, her skin wrinkling, and her body shrinking. Her mission in life was to be seen as the most viewed, the most intelligent, and the most beautiful and well-dressed person in her entourage. Her independence has been whisked away, so she sits.


I sat with her every day for six days, on the swing on her Main Street front porch, on the couch near her rocking chair, and on the recliner as she lay on the living room couch. She wouldn't speak, so I spoke.


I reminisced about growing up as her daughter and reminded her that I inherited her verbal sense and her love of nature. We laughed as I recalled for her my Saturday shopping  trips to New Iberia to buy the list of supplies she needed for the family. I admitted to her that Chriscola packed picnic lunches for Larry and me so we could meet at Sam Broussard's where he worked on weekends. I recalled how she and I loved to shop at Wormser's and Abdalla's and Mangel's before shopping malls forced the demise of family-owned stores.


I spoke about my life in Atlanta. I talked about my 35 year old daughter Alicia and her quest to save animals in her work with an underground railroad to transport strays and abandoned animals to safe homes all over the U.S. I talked about our 40 year old son Braden and his tremendous success in his IT career in Atlanta and how he recently purchased a home near Hines Ward, the DANCING WITH THE STARS victor. I told her about my grandchildren, Talia, 9, who recently starred in her fourth stage play, CINDERELLA, and Jake, 4, who says to me, "Grandma, I love you thissssss much," and how he melts my heart.


As AMD dozed, I relayed to her how some of her living progeny will some day reside in Dante's HELL, where Virgil's feathered RUMOR, covered with eyes and ears, pokes out their eyeballs, stuffs their ears with cork, and cleans out their mouths with LYE. Fast asleep, she didn't hear me, of course, but I took great pleasure in noting that description.


When AMD awakened, we sat on the porch swing surrounded by my sister Laurene, who regaled us with stories about her life as a state child welfare employee, while my other sister, Wanda, rolled her eyes and suggested they take me on a tour of Loreauville, and Mable, AMD's amazing, loving, day nurse, who pecked away at her cellphone updating her Facebook status as we spoke.


As the conversation waned, we sat quietly. Curious and surprised by the amount of traffic in this sleepy village, I questioned everyone about the destinations of these people.  Wanda commented that they were passing through to somewhere else, and the same persons would drive by in a few minutes or hours on their return trip. I asked AMD to help me count cars. Then she wanted to record the number of white cars, then black cars, and so on. Hilarious, mind-numbing fun.


I asked AMD if she had a Bucket List. As I explained the concept, she told me that she had never fished and  never watched the rain on a rainy day. As rain miraculously poured from the skies, we sat quietly and listened to the raindrops splashing on the concrete, shuddered as thunder boomed, and saw lightning strike a transformer down the street. I vowed to take her fishing next time I visited. I also suggested she list more items for her Bucket List as I noted that she had much more life to experience.


I prepared an afternoon snack for the group. We nibbled on Babybel cheese rounds, ate chilled watermelon with a fork, and dipped cupped corn chips in peach salsa. Our palates satisfied, we watched taped episodes of her favorite tv shows, EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND, and that sequined Vanna White who seductively flips lettered squares as contestants spit out,"I'll take a vowel, please."  Lord, save me from boredom and contempt for inane game show producers.


I drove home on Friday, a day early, because I was lonesome for Larry. I missed celebrating our June 22nd forty-third wedding anniversary with him because I needed to spend more time with AMD. He sent me an incredible, huge flower dragon-fly themed flower arrangement fashioned by Bobarena's creative florists. I will make it up to him when I return to Atlanta.