Day 3/366

Laughter seemed intangible for the longest time.  My dad, the anchor of our home, was diagnosed with MS, and his deterioration was rapid.  Mom took excellent care of him, and I left college in my freshman year to come home and help.

Eventually, we reached our limit and felt we had no other choice but to find a place my dad could receive round the clock care.  Seeing him in that hospital bed and knowing he'd never leave it in this life did something to Mom.

Her bottle green eyes used to spark with life and energy, until Dad was moved out.  I guess we just didn't have enough left in our love tanks to pay the energy bill, and the dullness of my mom's gaze became a haze that coated our once happy home.

Actually, by then I'd started calling it a house because we had no warmth in our dwelling place.  My overly rambunctious brother was so quiet and calm I never knew when he was here or at a friend's place.  Quiet became our blanket, and it was suffocating.

Until the aunts arrived.

Aunt Sophie and Aunt Millie were my great-aunts, but we just called them the Aunts.  It was Roger who announced that calling Millie his Great-Aunt would go to her head, so we just called her plain old Aunt Millie.

After a couple of weeks with them in residence the light began to gleam again in my mom's steady gaze, and Roger was up to his old antics, with an added flare of torment courtesy of his nemesis Millie.  She gave his mischief the added boost he didn't need, but brought him great inspiration.

So, while confusion would reign quite often, I wouldn't trade it for anything.  Now, if I could just get Aunt Sophie to stop saying I was promoting the occult!

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Will Aunt Sophie ever get with the program?  What kind of antics were Roger and Millie perfecting?  And how is Dad doing in his new living situation?

Dunno.

Creatively Yours,
Deena

All words are property of Deena Peterson and may not be used without permission.