So yesterday I get a call from my Mom and she just sounded totally beat. This isn't uncommon, my Mom is an extremely hard working woman and it isn't out of place for her to call in a state of total exhaustion. So we began chatting and the story that followed could have only happened to her. I've discussed my family a little before and in relating these stories I hope that you, the reader, can get a little more insight into their unusual lifestyle.
She began her day like any other, getting up, reading the paper and having a hot cup of coffee. My niece and nephew were over and she was trying to sneak in a few more minutes of quiet time before they woke up. It was about this time that she realized that the day before she had left one of her new canopy up a few yards down. When she got there, the storm the evening before had filled one entire side with water, thus crushing it and bending the legs. Upon trying to straighten them out, one broke entirely, rendering a two-hundred dollar canopy useless.
After losing the battle with the canopy, she noticed that the kids had left water balloon parts floating throughout the pool. She proceeded to scoop them up, and placed them in a bowl of water set aside for feet washing when getting in and/or out of the pool until she could get to a trash can. After doing this, she noticed that a beach ball from some distant land had rolled up into the yard. So she went to pick it up, in the meantime stepping in some dust and getting her flip flops dusty. She walked back near the pool and put both feet in the washing container with the balloon parts for a rinse. Apparently the water being hot, combined with some bizarre chlorine reaction, the balloon parts had become like melted gum on a sidewalk, entirely ruining her flip flops.
Frustrated and hot, she went back to the house to finish up some laundry. It was a sunny day, so she had placed some of the lesser important items out on the clothesline to dry. She pulled those in and headed to the shed to retrieve the kids good clothes from the dryer. Apparently at some point a tube of chapstick made it into the dryer and had melted all over everything. Thus, she had to stain-stick just about every inch of an entire load of clothes and wash them again. So while in the washer (the 2nd time) she decided to check on the clothes before going through the rinse cycle to insure that all the chapstick smudges were removed. When she opened the washer, somehow several globs of what appeared to be black grease had miraculously appeared. They hadn't stained the clothes, but were well on there way to doing so, and in order to avoid this, she removed all the wet clothes and removed the grease carefully with her nails. After a third washing in clean water, and a drying, minus the chapstick, she had finally finished the laundry. Following this she set her sights on putting them away.
She walked to a bedroom to put the clothes in the kids luggage. While putting the clothes up, she noticed a really foul smell. So she looked around and didn't see anything, and figured maybe it was just the dumpster across the street. They live near a small grocery store, and if the breeze is just right, it will blow a horrific smell in the direction of her house. As she moved around the house, the foul smell seemed to come and go, come and go. This put her into investigation mode and she began seeking out the smell. After several minutes of looking she finally followed the trail of smell to one location. The horrendous odor was coming from their morbidly obese weenie dog, T-Nom (French for "Little Man"). Apparently my Dad had boiled a massive pot of chicken for chicken salad and had in a totally moronic move, dumped this reeking, greasy both-like water under a tree in the grass in their back yard. T-Nom in all his amazing dogness had zeroed in on this spot and rolled in it. After doing so, he tracked this greasy, awful film throughout the entire house. There were tracks everyplace. He had jumped on several of the table chair cushions (which are fabric), two beds, the rug in the bathroom, and the recliner. Even after all this, my Mom claimed there was still enough of it on him to make him appear lacquered from all the grease.
It's hard to imagine all this happening to an individual before 9:00 a.m., but it did, and I believe it could only happen to my Mom. Despite none of this being my fault, I felt so terrible about the whole thing. Her normal job is reading water meters. The job entails walking out in the blistering heat, digging in the mud, dealing with dogs, fences, snakes and spiders. She walks miles and miles each month insuring that you never pay too much for your water. In all, she reads over 4600 meters, and the number grows steadily each month. She recently found out that in St. Martinville, there are fewer meters, and it takes a team of four people three and a half weeks to do the job she by herself does in just under two. So to have a miserable morning like this in her off time, just makes me feel sorry for her, and I often wish she wouldn't have to work so hard.
Following the clean up of that giant mess, getting the kids up, fixing them breakfast, and taking them back to Baton Rouge, she still found time to come home and wash a sink full of dishes, another load of clothes and fix dinner. When I called her at 9 p.m. that evening, she was just laying down to go to bed.
After relating this soul crushing day to me, I couldn't help but imagine how spiteful she could have felt for being dealt such a trying and difficult life. I thought of how run down my old house was, how much in debt she is with my Dad's medical bills and how I know she will never fully be without struggle.
Once she had finished her story with a small sigh, what she said next was pretty profound. She said, "Ya know Dus, I may have to work hard, and I don't have any money, I may have bad luck with balloons and dogs and canopies, but I haven't lost an ounce of faith. I'm just so thankful that my family is healthy and doing well. I have a job, a roof over my head and we're a close family. I can still talk to my son & daughter anytime I want, I have wonderful grandkids and we all love each other, and when I think of this I know that I am truly blessed and a wealthy woman for it."
To think that a person could have this much of an unwavering love and respect for life and family really gave me a lot of confidence. People complain about not having some shirt, tv or newest phone that they don't have, and she manages to have nothing and feel like she has it all. I think she realized a long time ago that it's not the material things you have in life, but family, friends, and love that are most important, and without that, you don't have much.
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