I received a phone call last week and on the other end was my cousin. She had an assignment due for school and needed a family member to write a memory they had of the family; she wanted me to write about my mother. I wrote it yesterday evening with teary eyes and a smile on my face and I thought it was worthy of sharing on a blog dedicated to her, so here it is:

There were miles of open road ahead of us, and nothing but memories in the rear view mirror. The Drive from Texas to Mississippi was generally so long and monotonous, but this trip was different, it is a trip that is forever etched in my heart and written with nostalgia. I can still remember the sounds of laughter that filled the car as we passed big rig trucks, video camera in hand, catching everything from angry faces to more amiable smiles. My mother and I joked that we would probably need to re-watch the video later as we were certain that some of these men could have come straight off of America’s Most Wanted. Those are the things that looking back now I ache for the most; to see her smile and hear her voice, to feel so complacent and lost in conversation. Our trip eventually led us back through Louisiana where we stopped to meet with her Aunt and Uncle which she hadn’t seen for several years. I could hear the surprise in her voice as they informed her that another person would be joining us for lunch that day. When she hung up the phone she told me that this gentleman was one who apparently courted her when she was about my age, she didn’t remember much special about the relationship other than they kissed in his pickup truck one late summer evening. That was just one of those things about her, she could stick to you like glue; it had been years yet here this man was just looking for a glimpse in the past, for a chance to see her again. I can relate to him now. The few minutes before we got to the restaurant we joked about how “Mr. High school” was going to look. We naturally assumed he was going to be a, “buck toothed, gun toting, redneck hillbilly that wouldn’t have the common sense God gave to a grasshopper”. We went on and on about how hilarious this guy was going to look and we couldn’t stop laughing about our expectations for her old flame.  We pulled up in the parking lot of the Cracker Barrel that day and I will never forget the look on my Mother’s face as we walked up to the small group of people and Mr. High school turned around to greet us. He was absolutely stunning. He had a big pretty smile and a voice with a southern drawl that could all but melt my own heart at sixteen. As we set down for lunch they chatted away like long lost best friends and in an hour they got through 15 years of lost time. His eyes were locked on her the whole time, taking in every moment as if he was going to rewrite it later and perhaps add a chapter to a book that had long been put away and was in need of a good dusting. When lunch drew to a close we said our goodbyes and she gave him an embracing hug. Once again he watched her walk out of his life, at the time there was still hopes of “until next time”. I don’t know if he ever got a next time but I do know that anyone who can have someone so wrapped around their fingers so many years later is a very, very special person. We drove away that day with another story to tell and something to laugh about, we had been so presumptuous about a man she vaguely remembered and he turned out to be a total catch. Two paths that had been crossed so long ago, met once more and so effortlessly got a young girls mind racing back to the childhood basics of happy endings.  It is a memory that gives me butterflies and reminds me what a wonderful woman my mother was and also keeps a little romantic spark in my heart alive, after all those years, he was still so in love with her.