Luke 12:40 (NIV) "You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
Maybe if my mother new this verse, it might have quickend her pace. On this Mother's Day, as I remember my mom and all her outstanding qualities, she wasn't perfect. You could count on her being late--very late!
Because of her chronic lung condition/allergies, she coughed a lot in the morning. In retrospect, I'm sure it wore her out before her day actually began. By the time she was ready to fly out the door though, she didn't miss a beat. Her hair was styled perfect, make-up applied in just the right order, all her clothes clean, coordinated and thought out with shoes to match! She was a stunning professional business woman.
About 6 months before her battle with pneumonia took her from us, we went on a trip together to Las Vegas for my birthday. She was probably late getting to my house, then we went shopping for shoes, then hit the outlet mall somewhere on the road to Vegas, and yes, we finally arrived. I remember the first night staying in the MGM Grand and we slept till 11:00 a.m., got down to the breakfast buffet around 1:30ish and sat and talked while eating BREAKFAST for hours, laughing and sharing some of her teenage stories she hadn't told me--couldn't imagine that by the fall, we'd be planning her memorial.
What a great time we had walking the strip and shopping, checking out all the new hotels.
On the drive home, we stopped for dinner at Stateline. When we headed out again very late that night, we found the greatest radio station playing "oldies", well it was 70's music from my era and she tried to guess every band. Surprisingly, she got a lot right and knew some of the lyrics. Did you know I went to the Rod Stewart concert and saw Bruce Springsteen with my mother? She got the tickets!
On the way home from our Vegas trip, keeping each other awake singing, it was so late. Instead of dropping me at home, we figured it would be better if I just went to her house and she'd take me home in the morning. Driving down the freeway, almost to our off ramp, the red light starts whirling in our back windshield, and to our surprise, the CHP blared the bull horn with immediate instructions: "LADY, PULL OVER NOW!"
It scared the peejeebies out of us!
(Officer) "Are you in a hurry Ma'am?"
"No, why do you ask? Our exit is the next one, State College..."
(Officer replies), " It's 3:00 a.m. and I clocked you at 95 mph."
After a little lecture and instructions from the officer about speed and safety, he was kind enough to just write her a ticket for 85.
She couldn't get out of the house on time, but my mother put the "pedal to the metal!"
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| Mom and me at the Bellagio, Las Vegas, May 2000 |
