My Poor Mother

How could I forget to share this story?

While Michael was at Bonneville, my mother came to Traverse City to help me with the Castle Farms Craft Show and to give me a general straightening out. This has become a once a year project to get me cleaned up and sorted out and ready for Fall. Mom tries so hard to keep me organized. It is a losing battle, but she is able to succeed for one week of the year.

Anyway...when Mom found out that Michael was going to be five days later arriving home, she decided to stay until he made it home. That gave me five more days to get organized. She was on the home stretch until Saturday morning.

Michael and I were at the Farm Markets on Saturday morning, so Mom had a leisurely breakfast and was starting to pack her truck for the trip home before she finished the few things that she had left on her "straighten Loretta list." She was on a roll, until...she took a box to the truck. Halfway to the truck, she looked back to see that the door had closed, which meant that it was now locked. No problem, she thought. She would just go to the other door that had been unlocked most of the time during her stay. Not Saturday morning! She had not gone out that door yet, so it was still locked, along with the door that she had just walked out of.

This was at 10:30 AM. Michael and I were not going to be home until 2:00 PM. Mom knew that she was in for the long haul, so she sat in her truck until it got too hot. Next, she moved to the back yard and sat on a very uncomfortable bench. For the next three and a half hours, she watched the creek, watched the road, watched the squirrels, tried to take a nap on a very hard bench and waited for someone to come home. When I came home, I looked for her inside for twenty minutes, until I looked outside and found her sitting on the bench...in her robe! She had not dressed yet, so she had to do all of this waiting in her robe!

I am so thankful that it was not raining or cold or windy. It was a beautiful day, but not one that Mom had planned on spending three and a half hours outside enjoying.

All this reminds me of the time that I walked outside at our Creekside home in March. I went out to feed the birds. The door accidentally locked behind me and I sat outside for six hours in my pajamas, until Michael finally came to get me. Ever seen woman stacking wood in her jammies before? That was me. I decided to do something to keep warm while I waited for Michael.

Must be something in our genes...