Blessings

Prayers can be answered in disconcerting ways. Progress can be more harrowing than stasis. Our Advent hope was for my mother to wake from her coma. And, one day, she opened an eye. But the eye  fixed on us unseeingly and unnerved us so thoroughly that the 9-year-old now needs a nightlight to guard him from the ghost of Grandma.

We longed for words. And one day they came. But the words are frightening. My mother thought the 11-year-old was Boudicca. She reckons fellow patients are Russian spies and the nurses Machiavellian conspirators. The woman who was planning the redecoration of her kitchen that night she walked home from work now clings to my neck and implores me to release her from a prison cell.

I sometimes wish again for the coma for, in that peaceful figure, I could imagine my familiar mother waking. I try to comprehend how a vivacious career woman can, through the inattention of a stranger, be transformed in a second into this. And yet I know that we are lucky. It is the harsh lessons that best teach us our blessings. And the car that felled my mother on that November night has, most harrowingly, reminded us how much we are blessed - in the casual acquaintance who turned up with a roast chicken one suppertime; in the school mothers who bought me 'magic' pyjamas to restore sleep and lipstick to gladden my mother's critical eye when it sees again; in the friend who filled my children's stockings when I couldn't face the shops.

We are blessed in the tweets from people I've never met offering their prayers; in my mother's colleague who arrived after work to cook for my father and in the stranger who offered her free physiotherapy if she leaves hospital.

We are blessed by the miracle that she is alive and talking when her heart stopped on the roadside. Above all, we are blessed in my mother. We may not get her back as she was; we may not get her back at all. But her absence has made us realise what we once took for granted: that her love and her strength and her generosity have infused every aspect of our lives. And for that we are so very lucky.

Comments

  1. Susan Coleman27 December 2013 at 21:19

    A beautiful written post and lovely tribute to your Mother. Blessings from Toronto, CA

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  2. Susan Coleman27 December 2013 at 21:21

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mac n' Janet27 December 2013 at 23:41

    You will always have your mother in your heart and memory.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Unknown28 December 2013 at 08:00

    Beautifully written tribute to your mum.

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  5. susie Dixon28 December 2013 at 17:21

    My thoughts and prayers are with you.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AlwaysARedhead28 December 2013 at 19:22

    This is so hard, my thoughts and prayers are with you.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Molly28 December 2013 at 19:26

    Oh Anna I've been thinking of you all lots over the Christmas period. I hope your mother continues to fight on and things get easier. As ever, much love to you. x

    ReplyDelete
  8. Actually Mummy...28 December 2013 at 21:07

    That is a post full of beautiful optimism and grace. I'm still wishing for a good recovery for your mother x

    ReplyDelete
  9. Rachel Selby28 December 2013 at 21:59

    You and she are truly blessed to have such a supportive community of friends as the ones you describe. A tribute to you and to your mother.

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  10. Older Mum31 December 2013 at 14:28

    I am so sorry that your mother is now experiencing delusions - I really hope this is temporary as her brain begins to sort itself out after the awful trauma. But also so happy to read that she has come around, and that you have so many supportive friends and family who love you all. A great big hug for you. XXX

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  11. Older Single Mum2 January 2014 at 17:38

    I have been wondering how she is and you are. I do hope that your mother is returned to you and you are so right about the harsh lessons being so valuable. I am also praying for you all. Much love and may 2014 be everything you all hope for Anna XX

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  12. Anonymous7 January 2014 at 03:11

    Anna, I haven't been on Twitter very much recently, so I had missed the terrible news about your mother. I'm so very sorry. This is one of those posts that you seem to be so good at - writing beautiful words about a bad situation. I hope things have improved over the last couple of weeks. Much love to you and your family xx

    ReplyDelete
  13. Mary @AsturianDiary10 January 2014 at 12:46

    My prayers are with you, your mother and all your family. What an incredibly difficult time for you and how wonderful of you to spy the blessings in the midst of it. Big hugs x

    ReplyDelete

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