“I think it’s going to be tonight. It’s my favorite night of the year. Do you think you’ll be able to stay awake for it?” I asked Bette, acting more like a five-year-old trying to talk her mother into going to a drive-in movie.
This annual rite means so much to me and I’d never shared it with Mum. The first and last time would be tonight. I hope she likes it as much as I do.
After finishing dinner, I brought our trays into the kitchen and cleaned up while Bette wrapped herself in a blanket close to the fire and watched “Jeopardy.” Dark already. I loaded up the dishwasher and took the garbage outside. I stopped just outside the door.
Could it be? I tossed the garbage into the composting bin and walked to the west side of the yard, closer to the marsh a few streets over.
Yes!
I rushed back in and helped Bette push her swollen feet into her green rubber garden shoes and get into her winter coat.
“I just knew it would be today,” I said. “It’s always the last week in March without fail.”
I wrapped my arm in Mum’s and out we went to the deck, arm in arm. It was so dark. Few stars and no moon. No lights on in any of neighbor’s houses. Today it reached 50 degrees but most people are still in Florida.
Missing this.
“Do you hear them?” I asked. Gingerly we walked through the backyard, closer to the marsh.
Peep. Peep. Peep, sang the tree frog peepers in their song of spring joy. The Hallelujah chorus signals the Yuletide season and the Peepers are the official welcoming chorus of spring.
Their high-pitched little voices tell us that the harshness and dark of New England winter are over. New beginnings and possibilities are coming. Rejoice. Be grateful.
Bette and I stand there listening. I know this will not be a joyful spring. The nurse’s note this week said, “Declining rapidly.”
But still, standing there with my Mum I sensed joy. Bette was always giving that to us, even when she had every excuse to be selfish. Like tonight.
We walked back into the house and cranked up the heat.
“It won’t be long now,” Bette said. I hoped she meant the spring.
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