Thank you, Mama

Mass was an endurance test today. I have a horrible cold and an ear ache and it feels like someone has stuck a lit cigarette down to my ear drum. It hurt so long and hard that I felt dizzy and thought for a minute that I was going to pass out during the Gloria. I didn't, thank God. Rocky noticed and hustled me home to bed.

Father Theoden wished all the mothers a happy Mother's Day and I thought of Mama. She's is that highly prized but very rare Southern specialty: A Great Lady.

I can barely express how devoted she was when I was recovering from surgery last year. Rocky never left my side except to go to work and my mother was there for both of us. She cooked for us both, helped me bathe, helped me get dressed, and was there in a flash when I called for her. I couldn't move much in the first few days home so I had to call her a lot. That couldn't have been much fun. She held my hand, she listened to me, she made small talk with the priest who came to give me the sacraments. She was a gentle rock of solace for Rocky.

She, who had never seen the inside of a police station in her life and who, like many black people her age is uncomfortable around cops; went to the local police station with my husband to get a parking pass for her neighborhood so he could stay at her place with me without worrying about our car being ticketed. When Rocky couldn't make it she went to the hospital with me for my post-op appointments. She was vigilant about my comfort. She never let me be cold, and seemed to know long before I would admit it that it was time for a pain pill. She was the best nurse I could have ever had and when I said "thank you, Mama", she just shrugged her shoulders and said, "I'm your mother, Baby. What else would I do?"


John Mary Thomas, pray for your Grandma. May she one day see your precious face in Heaven.