Bedtime Story

Part 3

Gretchen reached for a spoon on the tray, her arm quivered with age and her fingers faltered, dropping the spoon into her blanket.

“Oh, dear… ” she huffed as Andrea reached forward to grab it. Andrea wiped off the spoon with a napkin and sat beside her mother on the hospital bed.

“Here, let me help you Momma,” she said as she pulled the cart closer to her mother and then lowered it. It wasn’t easy to see her this way, so weak. Her white hair thinned, yet long served as a reminder of not only her mother’s longevity, but her frailty as well. Gretchen again reached for the spoon, and this time successfully plunged it into her oatmeal. She brought her hand back up to her face, shaky, but determined to eat. And she did. Though, she was unable to eat the meal in its entirety, it was more than she had eaten the night before. The young nurse came back into the room and promptly whisked away the tray, closing the door behind her.

Each machine in the room sung it’s normal beeps and blips as the air vents over head rumbled slightly releasing a slow flow of lukewarm air. With all the sound in the room, the silence was still deafeningly harsh, between the shallow and wheezing breaths of her mother. She looked at her mother, the woman that she remembered was no more. Not in appearance nor in mind. Her skin was dry and wrinkled like paper, crumpled and left in storage for almost a generation. Her eyes were a blue grey, like that of a child, but her face was aged and shaking. This was not the woman that Andrea had left, this was surely the woman that Andrea helped create though. A lifetime of wondering, over a quarter of a century of worry on top of her daily life. It was painful to see, but a price Andrea felt she, herself, surely deserved to pay.

Gretchen looked up at Andrea, with a light of familiarity and content. “Andrea, it’s so good to have you here. To see your beautiful face. You look so much like your father… Hahaha, ahh, but you have my hair! Lucky woman, you are, to have such beautifully long and light hair. Mine may be thinning, but it hasn’t fallen out completely yet! Ha! ” Gretchen squaked as she looked over her daughter.

Andrea’s heart warmed. Maybe it was the dementia, disallowing her the memories of losing her daughter for so long. Or maybe it was a wise old woman nearing the end of her walk through life, unwilling to dive into such sadness as explanations and blame. In either case, Andrea was happy to hear such spark and joy from her mother’s voice.

“Momma, last night, ” Andrea started, ” last night you were telling me that old bedtime story you used to say to me as a child. Do you remember that? “

” Faintly, dear… ” Gretchen brow furrowed and relaxed, working to recall the night before, “Faintly.”

“Can you tell me some more? I truly love that story, and I miss having you say it to me, ” Andrea asked, hoping her mother could remain with it long enough continue.

“Yes, dear, I would love to. But first this old coot has to visit the ladies room.” Gretchen said as she pushed her cart forward.

Andrea got up, walked around the bed, and pulled the cart out of her mother’s way. She pressed the control on the bed side handle and raised Gretchen to a vertical sitting position. She reached for her mother’s feet and aided her in dangling them off the bed. She grabbed the wheelchair, lowered the bed closer to the ground, and assisted her mother getting into the chair. Gretchen grip was loose, and her knuckles popped as she tightened her grasp. Legs shaking, Gretchen carefully turned and gently plopped herself into the wheelchair.

“Lucky these gowns have the back open, huh? Hahaha makes the trip that much easier.” cackled Gretchen.

Andrea rounded the bed again, with Gretchen in the chair and entered the restroom. She set up the wheelchair next to the toilet, and Gretchen grabbed the support bar on the wall.

“Ready?” Asked Andrea, “On the count of three. One…Two…and, Three.”

Gretchen slid across from the chair to the lav as Andrea held both hands. After a few moments, the two women reversed the process and Andrea helped Gretchen back into the bed.

“Thank you dear, now, where was I? ” Gretchen asked, “Oh, yes, the story.”

“Yes, you had just gotten to the part where the sun arrived, and something was falling from the sky. ” Andrea reminded her.

“Ahh, yes, right.” Gretchen said, resting her hand in her daughter’s.