See you soon

When my mother died, it was very hard for me. I am an only child, and except for her, alone in the world. I had a grandmother, but she had died 10 or so years earlier. I never knew the other one.

My mother was an artist in life. She loved to paint, people and landscapes mostly. She was always encouraging me to paint. As soon as I exhibited any talent, she ran out and bought me my own artist kit. Mom was also very spiritual. She intuited things often.

When she died, the very next day my daughter flew in to be with me. She couldn't stay for the memorial service, but it was still a comfort. She was the most like my own mother. Although It had never entered my mind before that day, I vowed to her through my tears that I would paint a picture of my mother, her grandmother. I knew just the picture I wanted to use.

I had been with her for several weeks before she died. Refusing to give up hope even though she was in hospice care and I'd been told she didn't have long. She would doze on the couch and give me gentle loving smiles when she was awake.

When I went back the day after she died, with my daughter, it was to pick up some of Mom's belongings that I had promised to her. Imagine my surprise when everywhere I turned I found the picture of Mom propped up on a table. It was always the same picture. The one that I had planned to paint from! I had been wondering if I would be able to find it.

The thing is, I had never seen the pictures there before! Her husband didn't know anything about it. She didn't communicate at all the last day, and nothing had been there when I was there while she was alive.

I continued searching and in the spare bedroom in their tiny trailer I found a scrap of folded paper lying on top of some books, cards and calendars. When I opened it, there was a message in her hand. The message described the night before her death, which occurred in the early morning. It was extremely accurate in every detail. It had to have been written months earlier. She had been too weak to move around for two or three months at least.

Gayle