Friday, February 11, 2011

Grama Dotty

My mother lies in a bed at the hospital. She cannot communicate. She does not respond much. She is asleep most of the time and it is nearly impossible to awaken her. Once in a while, she will scratch her face, pull off a cord, fiddle with her blanket or move her leg. Mostly her eyes are closed.

A blood clot, something so simple, is responsible for this.

It seems so silly to blog about it because it is as common to go through this as getting the flu. But with all of them it is their mother. This is mine.

Tonight, I wiped her very dry mouth and lips. While she lay there unresponsive, I applied the brightest red lipstick I could find in Walgreens. Then a layer of vitamin ointment. She is beautiful. And even though she will not give any indication of a visitor's presence, I know that she would be happy to know a fresh coat of lipstick is ready for them. And if she could, she would kiss them and leave a bit of that lipstick on their cheek.

I do not know what tomorrow will bring. But today is a day for lipstick.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

mom, this was beautiful. i got a little choked up. every day we're here is a day for lipstik right? grandma taught us that much for sure. what a great woman she was.