Yesterday, I photographed part of what a friend had set up as a build on a Virtual Reality platform called Second Life.   She had built this on her “land” in celebration of Mother’s Day.  Her parcel is set up to a historical reenactment role play scenario based on the times of the Civil War in the United States of America.  That, in itself, is an interesting concept and may be revisited from time to time on our blog, Aloha Promises Forever.   For now, I am only seeking to explain just enough so that the ‘photographs’ make a bit more sense.

Mother's Day 2017, Part I
by Michael Romani

Seven Eleven
The alarm cock wakes me

Seven Eleven
Has always been
A special number to me

I wonder 
What time it is in heaven
Seven Eleven

My Mother 
Would always buy me
A cherry Slurpee

Or, a Coke one
Then some genius combined them
And I was undone

Today is Mother's Day
It's Seven Eleven
I wonder what time it is
Up there in heaven?

(c) May 14, 2017  Michael Romani

It was the simple things as well as the big things that kept the cards and letters and love coming through the years.  The day I laid my mother in ground was one of the saddest days of my life.

I remember just before she passed,  She looked up at me from her bed and told me that she had always been able to rely on my honesty.  And she asked me to tell her the truth.  Would she recover or was she dying?  I choked on my reply.  And told her that I did not know.  That what I knew seemed bad but no one knows the things that are in the hands of God.

If she gave up and did not try which is what I had been hearing from the caregivers, it was near certain what the outcome would end of being.  But, if she tried like she had always pushed me to do when I had gotten stupid and severely injured that she could do just what I did and recover inch by inch.

She smiled and told me she was tired and hurting with a kind of hurt that she had never known.  She told me loved me and was sorry for words along the way that were sometimes less than kind.  I told her that I loved her and did not remember any such words.  We kissed and hugged.

A week later, I got a call.  She had passed.

I know that she’s in heaven.  I know that she’s out of pain.  And for that I’m thankful for.  That and that I got a chance to see her and make up with her for a very silly fight that had ended with her doing stuff that I choose to forgive and forget.  But, after a few years, she called me to see me before she went home to God.  Through the tears, I am grateful for that and all the things she did from birth and along way, larger and smaller… like the Slurpees she would buy me as a special treat.

I miss you mom so very much today.  So, I know it’s not songs any more but maybe if you’re not too busy up there in heaven, maybe you can look down on my words and know that I’m doing my best to honor your memory on this day. Happy Mother’s Day!… I miss you.