Ms. Aunt Gel (aka Ms. Angelle)

I've been thinking about Ms. Angelle lately.  I really miss her.  Today I went to a luncheon at the Women's Club with Mom.  On our way, we passed by the cardiologist's office that I used to take Ms. Angelle to.  I remembered how she always had people engaged in some sort of conversation about her Cajun dialect.  I chuckled as I recalled the time she took her shirt off in front of the doctor to show him something and she had nothing on underneath.  The look on that young doctor's face was priceless!  

Mom and I had time to spare (she picked me up more than thirty minutes before the luncheon started), so we drove by Ms. Angelle's house.  Two vehicles were parked in her driveway and a lawn chair was on the porch.  I guess her daughter finally decided to move into the house.

Then, when Mom and I arrived at the Woman's Club (which is housed in an old historical mansion much like Ms. Angelle's), we discovered they would be recognizing a lady's birthday during the luncheon.  She was turning 100 years old!  She was as spry and agile as Ms. Angelle was, only this lady had trouble hearing.  I thought how much Ms. Angelle would have liked the Woman's Club, as they have different groups to suit a wide variety of hobbies: music, books, sewing, cooking, gardening, etc.  Gardening would definitely have been her choice of groups.

Later on, I was driving Nicholas to the store and he started talking about death.  He was sad and got teary-eyed as he asked me if I would still be his mom after I died (I got teary-eyed, too). 

I told him, "Of course, I will always be your mom.  Forever and ever."

"Do you think we'll see each other in Heaven?  Will we see Miss Aunt Gel (Ms. Angelle)?  And your friend Mary?  And everyone else who has died by then that we know?  How do we know when we're going to die anyway?"

"Of course we'll see our loved ones!  And nobody knows when their time will come.  But you know what?"

"What?" Nicholas asked.

"We can't waste our precious time worrying about when that will happen.  Instead, we need to enjoy each moment we have together.  Okay?"

"Okay," ...and then back to the normal Nicholas... "well, in my next life, I'm going to be a superhero."

I looked toward the sky and wondered if anyone up there was listening.

When I sat down at my computer later, there was a cute cardinal figurine sitting above the screen.  Amazing.