For Life

 

Came home from the hospital tonight to find my mother and "Aunt" Rosemary sitting on the couch in their nightgowns, under a blanket, eating chips and watching NCIS.  They met over 50 years ago when Rosemary went to a Sarah Coventry party at my mother’s house.  Each pregnant with their second child, they became fast and furious friends, and have spent more than half of their lives together raising children, and celebrating milestones.  I was four when Rosemary’s family moved to Syracuse, yet I remember the tearful goodbye.  The following day my mother called and offered to help her unpack.  This was the first of many road trips my father gladly made.  Our visits are vivid in my mind, our families forever interlocked.  Two years ago Rosemary’s husband died within 6 weeks of being diagnosed with the same disease my father is battling.  Yesterday in the hospital Rosemary and my father sang a Janet McDonald song and reminisced about a trip they took to China.  My father kissed her hand and said, “I love you”.