I’ll never forget the time I got that middle of the night phone call that we all dread: A loved one has been in an accident and needs you.
This particular middle of the night phone call was more scary than those thoughts of such a dreaded call-especially when it’s about your mother.
Outside of the woman on the other end of the line calling me at 4 a.m. talking loud. She was too lit for my dark: sounding vibrant as if somehow the sun was shining in her neck of the woods while I-on the other end listened to her lit tone of voice with my eyes squinted and left hand up as if to tell her to calm down.
There were so many interesting things about that phone call and the circumstances surrounding it-I’ll never forget.
You see when she (the nurse) called me, she said she chose me after sorting through my mom’s cell phone list and I (“Angie”) stuck out like a sore thumb—because “Angie” was the only one without a title while everyone else was labeled: “My Sister Jocelyn,” My Niece Karen,” etc.
So after trying a couple of the names with labels, the nurse decided to try the name that had no label and she reached me (the only one who was available).
My mom used to make a joke that her middle child-my brother Roderick, was going to be the only one there for her in her time of need. Among myself and my older brother who were always the creative types versus my middle brother-the rambunctious child who, that at age 13, stole a Christmas turkey and all the stuffings for my mom to cook for him (and us all) as a token of his love and loyalty [and who] though always was the rambunctious “bad” middle child; was a die-hard momma’s boy at heart ever since we were kids.
Well typically, “creative” me is up at 4 a.m. during [what, for years] I call my “magic hour” writing. That particular night at 4 a.m., however, I was in a light sleep counting magically sheep.
And although I wasn’t the one with a label or the one she expected would be there for her in her time of need, I was the only one there for her in her time of need.
Rewind.
My mother and I had
