Wednesday, May 19, 2010

My Mom's in the Trunk

A few weeks ago was my trek out to Yosemite, CA with my older sister.  We left on a Friday at 1am and 48 hours later we'd driven through 9 states and were somewhere in L.A.   Eventually I need to get my butt in gear and tell you the tales of a week long trip to scatter my Mother's ashes.  Definitely a trip of mixed emotions as the family "gathered" for one last time together.

Today I had to stop and laugh as I remembered Day#2...Utah.  Somewhere in or around the Moab desert we stopped for a stretch and to grab a map at the visitors center.  And can I just say that there are a lot of States in this Country that are total rubbish with the visitor center deal?  I mean, seriously, in Colorado you couldn't even get a free map until you were leaving the State!  That's helpful.  

Anyway, back to Utah.  Setting:  A beautiful Visitor's Center stocked with information and attended by two adorably cute old ladies, one of whom could barely speak English but she kept giving me free crap and jamming it into a tourist bag.  Whatever, it was free and she was sweet.  As we were heading out the main lady was in the middle of giving us what turned out to be VERY helpful tips - like; after such and such point there is no civilization or gas stations for over 40 miles, so fuel up.  Well, this woman (obviously quite concerned about Thelma and Louse out on their own) begins in with the Mom-type lectures about safety.  We took it graciously, as we would from our Grandmother...if we had any Grandmother's!  And as she lightly touched my arm she said, "I know you know all of this.  I'm sure your Mother gave you an earful before you left."

Me, realizing that my Mom is in a plastic box in the trunk and that maybe that would be TMI for this precious old woman, quickly decides it's best to play along. 

"Yeah."  I said as I waved goodbye.

After getting outside, my sister coyly says, "So, Mom gave you an earful, huh?"

"Well, it was either that or tell the lady that actually my Mom is in the trunk - want to meet her?"

♪♫♪  On the road again....

7 comments:

Avo said...

What a bitter sweet post!

My condolences for your loss.

It was nice of you not to shock the old lady. I like to think I would not have has well, but macabre humor is hard to resist... Groucho Marx once jokingly said he wanted "Excuse me, I can't stand up" to be written as his epitaph; also reportedly said the following as his last words: "Die my dear? Why that's the last thing I'll do."

Thanks for sharing that moment.

Miss Taken said...

Thank you! Believe me, it was hard to bite my tongue on that one. If that woman wouldn't have been created to be Rose on the 'Golden Girls', I'd have said something not politically correct probably! That's just me. Ha!

"Excuse me, I can't stand up" that is fantastic!

Nancy J. Parra said...

My condolences on your loss.
Gorgeous story. It made me smile. I think I might have had to tell her my mother was in the trunk. lol, Thanks for sharing. Cheers~

BeeKay said...

I'm glad you restrained yourself; I'm imagining that poor old woman feeling horrible for the rest of the day if you'd told her. Ha! (Not really ha ... but yeah, actually, ha!)

chen said...

I would have told her. Definitely. But not Maren.

It's so nice that you have sweet friends that have no idea how much delight we get out of saying "My mom is dead!" . . . knowing that we love them and miss them dearly - but hey - ! - they're dead! They're in the trunk! They're in the lake. The forest. Some have even been saluted with butcher knives on their way out. . . it's all okay.

Anonymous said...

Hahaha...Heidi, I love you. i would've done the same thing. I think it's all the years in customer service, for me...with one person I'll play along and say "Oh yes, I love hot weather!" and the next it's "Oh I can't wait till this hot weather's over with!" :) You become the best at learning what people want to hear, and what people need to hear. ;) Also, I started my blog! It's pretty generic right now, but it's a start. Thanks for the inspiration.

Cabbiethegreat said...

BTW, um, that's me...Carrie. haha!