Addie Lou, I love you!

Where were you 15 years ago today? It was a Sunday. I was in New Orleans at the SEC basketball tournament. Carl and I went with a group of people from his office. His boss at the time was Bill. Bill was a Mississippi State grad and we got our tickets from him so we sat in the MSU section. MSU won the tourney that year so our section was full of excitement. Our group sat in front of a family that always bought a whole row of tickets minus one. Part of their trip fun was to see if one of their group could pick the occupation of the person who sat 'in that other seat' on their row. They were such a fun and sharing family that we soon learned about this fun tradition. We all were waiting for someone to sit in 'that' seat. He finally arrived. He was a plumber and sure 'nuf someone had picked that occupation. What fun we had!!

I called my mama on Saturday night and told all about my day. How I loved hearing the tennis shoes squeak on the court, how pretty the Kentucky blue was and how fun the crowd was. I also told her the I could hear the calliope from a riverboat when I was in my motel room. How do I remember that I told her all these things? She wrote them down on a note pad she had right by her phone and I found that notepad the next day.

In the wee hours of Sunday morning, my brother, John had the very sad task of calling me to tell me that our sweet and precious mama had died. We knew it could happen at any time but it was still a shock.

She had an aortic aneurysm but couldn't have it operated on because she had COPD. When they finally found what was causing her to be short of breath they gave her 24 months to live. She lived 19 months. I believe she had had the aneurysm for quite awhile so I am thankful for all the time we had her.

Today I plan to spend the day watching basketball. AUBURN plays at noon. I am thankful that it is sunny here today because my grief has been very near this week. Standing in the sun helps. I plan to have fun, comfort food for lunch and supper. In between roundball games I plan to read a new to me D E Stevenson book.

Call your mama today. Tell her you love them.