Are You Listening?

It’s the month of May, and I’m sitting here wondering how in the hell it crept up so quickly. I mean, the weather has been pretty much lousy until recently. It had been feeling like a prolonged month of January for the longest time, but suddenly, the heavens have opened up, and there are flowers blooming, and birds are waking me up each morning..

May began with a bridal shower tea at my house for my cousin, the bride to be. I was happy with the results, and Tania seemed to be happy, and my guests seemed to be having a good time, so I pretty much think it was a success—just one problem. It was a tea party, but I don’t think there was more than one person who actually had a cup of tea. I had coffee and lemonade---it seemed to be the popular choice. Oh well.. My daughter announced that for her bridal shower (no plans of one of yet—we are talking years into the future) she wants a Mimosa party. Okay, that seems tame enough—this is from the same girl who wants to invite Elton John to her wedding. She wanted Michael Jackson to be there too-but we all know that will never happen now.

We had a nice turn out, of course some people who said they were coming, didn’t, but that is okay. I invited my two aunts to come to the party, and although they didn’t know my cousin personally, they rather enjoyed themselves. One aunt, who had never met the groom to be even won a trivia game about him, which was pretty funny.

All of this brings me to an odd course of events that happened a week previous..

I’m not sure if I had mentioned this before, but my mother has been worried about traveling back home from the Azores by herself this summer. I booked her flight early with the understanding that her flight coming home could be rescheduled to when my brother could come out and return with her. Well, that was not the case. Azores Express had one seat available for the flight home in August, for over $800.. My mom had already bought her ticket for $700, and they wanted an extra $800 to change her flight. Of course, my mom didn’t want to pay it. I was at the point of paying for half it myself to give me the peace of mind that she would not be traveling alone, but a week later, I couldn’t do it even if I wanted to because the plane by that time was completely booked—no seats available. So I would have to deal with this issue when I was there, and pray for someone to perhaps cancel.

Well, last week, I had a very restless sleep. I was tossing and turning, because I was thinking of all the things that could go wrong with my mom’s flight coming home. Of course, there really isn’t a reason to worry—I mean, she would not be ALONE—she’d be surrounded by another 100 Portuguese people on the plane. Well, I didn’t sleep very well. I remember having a few off the wall dreams with my dad, driving around in his car. I couldn’t tell you now what they were about, because I don’t remember, but I can tell you that each time I have a dream with my father in it, he is usually trying to send me a message, and that morning I woke up not remembering what that message could have been other than: “Oh no, my dad is really upset that mom is traveling alone. He is telling me this from the grave!

The day before, I get a call from my Aunt Addie, telling me that she and my other Aunt Cecilia were planning on coming to the bridal shower. We got to talking about the summer trip to the Azores, and I mentioned that if she was thinking of going there again, that she should really consider it, and hinted that my mom would be traveling home alone. My aunt said that she would really seriously think about it, but I really didn’t think much about the prospect. I mean, she had been there before and really loved going, but planning a trip unexpectedly for the summer didn’t seem really realistic for her to do, but I had my hopes.

On the day of the bridal shower, the door bell rang and Tania and I went to the front door to greet our first guests, and who should be there standing at my door, but both my Aunt Addie and Aunt Cecilia. As soon as she came into the house, Aunt Addie turned to me and announced, “I’ve decided to go to the Azores and come back with your mother.”

Of course, my mother and I are thrilled! My aunt booked the trip that following Monday, and arranged to be seated on the plane next to my mother. It was then that my mother confided in me how she had a very restless sleep the week prior, and how she was up all night, worrying about flying alone, and how she prayed all night that God give her some good news. Yes, it was the same night I couldn’t sleep either. Well, I guess God was listening…