Mom’s phone calls are getting more meta every day. Today, she told me that love was important, God… does something, and Father’s Day. I wonder if this has everything to do with not visiting dad on Sunday, or not inviting them over to my place, or not calling them all week, meh I may never know.
We start talking about how hot it is and she inquires if my air conditioning is fixed. I say no, and she deems it was absolutely imperative that it get fixed. I counter with the fact that growing up as a peasant farm girl until moving to become an impoverished nursing student all in the third world, she was never afforded such luxury at my age. She sees my point but this causes a tangent about the Philippines.
As always when talking of the motherland, mom directs the conversation to her financial plans and dad’s imminent retirement in said locale. As her delirium starts of how happy she will be when she retires there, I cut her off telling her that I will not bail her out when her caretakers overseas bilk her of her savings. Mom laughs and says I’m speculating too much, but never dismisses the thought. I offer more grim scenarios of how aging in the first world has made her ill prepared for retirement in the third world. The point is not wasted on her, but she refuses to buy into the gloom.
We laugh some more and she tells me that it I’ll miss her when she passes. I am always disturbed by this exchange as she starts with “When I’m gone, you’ll say…”
I cut her off this time and say “‘Finally, I don’t have mom complaining that the maid is stealing her money‘, or ‘Poor Dad, it’s 120 degrees F, and all he has to beat the heat is mom’s complaints‘, as well as ‘Good, no more long distance calls to hear mom complaining about the pollution of the ocean.‘”
She catches my drift and she winds up the call with my brother’s weight loss. This is not directed at me, nor does it give her a chance to talk about her. This is a third party that doesn’t realize the ridicule that is being foisted upon them. Happy that we no longer take pot shots at each other, as we direct our cruelty to my brother, we say our good byes.
