Sunday, January 06, 2008

The Last Day of Christmas



It's January 6--Epiphany--and our Christmas tree is still up. I bring Mom to our house after church to enjoy the tree one last day.

"Tomorrow we're going to take it down and clean up this room," I say.

"No, don't take it down," she begs.

When I take her back to Ocean View Assisted Living, she notices that the pretty lights and decorations in the third-floor elevator lobby are gone.

"The Christmas lights are gone!" she says with disappointment. "They threw them away."

"No, they just packed them away in boxes until next year," I explain.

"Do you think I'll be around to see it then?" she asks.

I pause: this is a serious question.

"Well, we don't know, do we? But I think so--you're not sick. You don't have any illness like cancer or anything."

The conversation moves on.

Note on Jan. 27: She occasionally comments, weeks later when we enter that elevator lobby, "Oh, the lights are gone!"

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