20 things

Since last weekend, I've thought about at least 20 other things my mom commented on during our drive to the property and back home.

I've thought about posting a list of 20 things she didn't comment about during our drive.

But then today we had a conversation that I needed to share with you, gentle readers.

I called to see how she was doing, what was going on, what was new. Before I realized what I was doing, I was answering questions about Jack's health (much better thank you) and his visit to the internal medicine guy yesterday to talk about the "small stroke" the doctors discovered during his hospital stay. Yes, silly me, I told her about the stroke and then she asked all of her questions about his stroke and provided the answers to all of the questions.

And then without warning, she said, "What do you think caused it?" AND MY RED FLAGS WENT UP AND MY SIRENS STARTED RINGING AND MY BRAIN SAID, BACK AWAY, NOW! GET AWAY FROM THE PHONE!!!" But no, for some reason, I stayed on the phone as she said, "You know, he might have had that stroke last fall when he was so upset and stressed about you." I paused (points for that from my therapist) and said, "So now I'm responsible for giving Jack a stroke?" Immediately she said, "oh no, don't you ever think you caused his stroke. You're not God, you can't cause things like that, no one can, people react to things the way they react and are responsible for their own stuff"...and on and on and on.

Until finally, my other line started to ring and I said, "Listen mom, I've got to get that other line. Talk to you later." And I let the phone ring.