"I'm not leaving you!" I said.
She continued as though I hadn't said anything, "I can't believe your leaving me! What if your husband is mean and horrible and cruel?"
"Then you have my permission to beat him."
"Good," she exclaimed, "but I'm still going to be sad."
"But I don't think Superman is going to be mean and horrible."
She sighs and gives a fake pout.
"I'm not leaving you," I said.
"You are in four or five years," she replied.
"No, I'll be getting married, not leaving. Getting married is different than leaving."
"No it's not. You're going to get married and leave this house which is where I'm at and I'll be all alone!" (She fake sobbed here)
"You wont be all alone! What about Bree, Beenie, Kay and Mommy and Daddy? They'll be here." I reached down and helped her off the floor she had dramatically thrown herself on and made her sit on my lap in Mom's chair.
"But Kay is gonna leave and Bree is gonna leave and -"
Bree cut in, "I'm not going to ever get married, so I'll be here."
"You're going to leave eventually! You wont be here forever, " T. Lynn looked as though that ought to be common knowledge.
"Yeah, when I'm like... 20 or something!" Bree said.
"So then you'll be gone and Beenie'll be gone and I'll be all alone!"
"You wont live here forever T. Lynn." I told her.
"Yes I am. I'm going to always live here and take care of Mommy when she gets old."
Momma sent her a look that let her know she was highly offended.
"At least she doesn't think you are old right now..." I told Mom.
"I guess that's an up-side," Momma said, waving us up out of her chair.
"Yup," I said.
"You are going to get married and have your own home and then you'll have more children than you expected and you'll have to move farther away from me!"
"What?!" To put it mildly, I was shocked.
"You will." She nodded, again positive that what she was saying was completely true. I didn't feel like that was a good time to mention that moving into a bigger house eventually is our plan. There was no reason to stress her out more.
"By the time I get married, you wont even care anymore. You'll be a big girl, 13 maybe. You'll be happy because you'll be closer to getting your own room."
"Nah-uh."
"Yeah-huh."
"Nah-UH!"
"I wont be leaving you T."
"Yes, you will! And I'll be here caring for the elderly." T. Lynn said in apparent devastation
"Hey" Momma said. "This just keeps getting better and better!"
"I'm not saying you're old now. But you are going to get old some day." T. hugged Mom in apology.
Momma just looked away, totally offended now.
I just sighed.
Needless to say, the converstion went on for awhile; exacerbated by Superman calling me, claiming my attention to give him directions to some place while she wanted my attention to help her make a sun-catcher.
This isn't the entire conversation. Some of it's paraphrased and parts aren't even there, but you get the general idea. I feel like Aunt Bee from Romona and Beezus!
Don't ya'll just love this story?
ReplyDeleteFor the record, I was only pretending to be offended - at least after the hug! :D
I was ten when my eldest siter got married and I felt exactly the same! They moved a couple of kilometers down the road and I was placated once I understood that we would see her often and that her new husband was kind to her and let us come over. He also seemed to like me which was a big plus! That was nearly forty years ago and those two are two of my nearest and dearest. Life goes on!
ReplyDeleteRiah, I loved this story it made me laugh! Thank you.
ReplyDeleteHave a beautiful weekend. xxx
All you kids are going to be leaving eventually! (Mine too) But we have today, don't we Becky?
ReplyDeleteYes we do! The only problem is that "today" is never really long enough. :)
ReplyDelete