Such a Long Goodbye.

   My mom is dying.  Yes, I know we are all dying from the minute we're born.  This is different. She is actively dying.
She has dementia. She's a shell of who she used to be, but she's still in there.
   I see it when she focuses enough to notice things around her, like the kids playing pretend in front of her chair, or my daughter bringing her a glass of water. Or me crying on her shoulder because I miss her. She left so suddenly, it seems, like I never really knew that that last coherent conversation was happening. Oh, the things I would have told her if I'd known. I would have asked her so many things.
   My mom was never one to talk about the past. She had so many challenges in her life; I don't know if she was just too emotional to talk about them, or felt that no one should know. Her childhood, her years as a young adult, and even my early childhood just weren't mentioned very often. She rarely spoke of friends she'd had, experiences that shaped her life, or growing up. It confused me when I was younger because my mom was such a vibrant, strong person.        As an adult, especially when I experienced some very rough things myself, I began to think that maybe she wasn't as strong as she wanted me to think.  
She almost never cried in front of me. I'm not sure whether that was a good thing or not.

Thank you, Al.

   I learned tonight to be immensely grateful to man named Al.  When my mother was three, back in 1941, her father was killed on a merchant marine ship during WWII. To make ends meet with him gone and three girls at home, my grandmother had taken in boarders, as was common in those days.  After her husband died, she met Al Vitteri, and he moved in as what would eventually be a common-law husband. He became the father my mother never had.  He taught her how to fix things, took her to baseball games, and took care of her.  My mother's older sisters didn't care to do things with him, but my mom loved him.
   So why am I thanking him now? He died 5 years before I was even born. I am thanking him now because until tonight, I never knew he even existed. I have spent most of the last near-40 years thinking my mom was was without a dad from her youngest days.  It broke my heart to think of her like that. I suppose I could be annoyed or upset or dumbfounded as to why my mother never even mentioned his name. That would seem to be a logical response. But my first emotion, the one that brings tears to my eyes as I write, is gratitude.  Gratitude that he was there to take care of my mom, to be her guide and her father at a time she truly needed one. Relief that the awful childhood I had pictured had not been her reality. 
   What prompted her to open up about this after decades of never speaking about him was a recollection of a restaurant that he used to take her to. My nephew just got a job there, and although it has changed names many times, it is still in the same spot in my mother's hometown. The memory of him taking her there for Cokes and walking home with him came out so naturally I almost missed it. Almost. I stopped her briefly and said, "Who's Al?"  She said of course she never mentioned him, it hurt too much. And then, with little prompting, came the whole story. Ending with how badly it hurt to lose him suddenly right after her first son - my oldest brother - was born. And how she kept it inside because it hurt so much.
   All this talk of emotion from my mother was nothing less than amazing to me. She has spent her life repressing her feelings, and emotions came up very rarely in our conversations. I felt like I was looking back in time with her though a window that I might never have had a chance to see, and it was a privilege to be there with her.
   So - thank you, Al.  For being the grandfather I never knew I had. For being there for the little girl that became the wonderful mom I have. Thank you.

An Open Letter

To the family of the 6 month old I did CPR on 19 years ago:

   I want you to know that I remember your son. I remember his wispy blond hair, what little there was on his soft head. I remember his tiny body, helpless and still. I remember the frantic efforts of the paramedics and my crew to reverse what we knew was irreversible. He had been down too long and was already gone. But we wanted so badly for that not to be true.
   I am sorry I did not cry for your son then. I was wounded, horrified, and struck by sadness. But I never cried. I wondered why I didn't. I felt like I should but it didn't come.
Up until tonight I never shed a tear for him. I have thought of him, and you, hundreds of times since then. Even after my own children were born I would think of him with sorrow, but a blank sorrow. I am sorry that it has taken me this long to fully share your grief. My heart aches for you and what you lost, and I can only say that in 20 years he has never left my memory, and my heart ached with every thought I had of him.
   I never met you, never knew your names, but I hope you know you are not alone.....even after all this time.