COMING TOGETHER--76

It is Saturday. I see Mom found her car keys, but I saw where she put them before she woke up. So I have hid them. So far she has not argued with me about them; I think she just forgot.

We went to our favorite breakfast place, The Egg. Mom ate well but I know she is losing weight. She wants to see the Superman movie next week, so we will go. She is in love with Russel Crowe. Mom is a movie star addict, when she was young with Robert Montgomery and now.

I think she fell in love with what my Dad looked like in his WWII uniform, more than she fell in love with him. Their marriage changed so much from the late 40s till Dad died 15 years ago.

I am reading to her the Maggie Hope mystery novels. They're set in WWII but from a modern feminist perspective; the novels are not realistic but they have a woman as the hero, not a man. Mom likes that.

Now that it is Sunday morning, the rain has continued. I knew Mom would not get out of bed if she heard the slightest rain. She likes to act afraid of any wind, any rain, any bad weather. I don't think she's really all that afraid, she just uses that as an excuse to withdraw and do nothing. As her energy wanes, as she loses interest in being with others, this is what she does.

So I went to church. Mom's church is an impersonal place, like a bank: you dress up, you deposit money and then you leave cordially without really knowing anyone. For me, it is a neighborhood church--if you're from the right neighborhood you fit in, if you aren't, you don't.

I wonder how those people get through the week without the spirit of God.