The morning was as crisp as a freshly starched shirt. Cool autumn air covered the land as the rising sun jutted through the brown and orange foliage. The beams poked through the trees like thousands of fingers. The lingering shadows retreated with their arrival. Leaves fell like a gentle rain, signaling the change of season. A light dew covered the grass, only disturbed by a sole female walking across the field.
Ginny felt the cold moisture soak through her tennis shoes as she walked across the hills. A faraway crow greeted her. She paused and soaked in its raspy call. The morning was hers and hers alone. A blanket of fog rolled across the cattle pond, sneaking toward her like a cat on the prowl. It was that pond where she and her father the Captain had caught her first fish. Ol’ blue, he called it. It was legend in the county — the biggest brim ever caught in the state. Ginny looked at the fog as it formed the shape of her father and then as suddenly dispersed by a slight breeze. “Life,” she thought, “is about making memories.”
Of course, those memories can be stolen. She thought of her mother Annie, who was currently in the county’s nursing home. Alzheimer’s was a vicious unrelenting thief. Once a strong lady who had successful balanced a career as a doctor and raised a family, her mother was now a child. OK, so memories could be blown away like the mist, too. Getting older wasn’t for sissies.
Ginny’s cellphone rang. Like her mother, she was a doctor, too. “Dr. Lucas speaking. What’s up?” As Ginny listened, the crow cawed again. Ginny said, “I’ll be right there.” She pocketed her phone and looked back out the pond and said, “I miss you dad.”
A rifle shot echoed in distance. A buck had probably met his maker, she thought. Death arrived in so many different ways and speeds. She walked down the hill to her yellow Jeep. She started the engine and ground the gears into reverse. Other doctors could have their BMWs and Porsches. Her old Jeep Wrangler was just fine with her. As she drove down the old dirt road, she began to sing along with James Taylor’s Sweet Baby James: “There is a young cowboy who lives on the range, his horse and his cattle are his only companions…”
“So goodnight all you moonlight ladies, rockabye sweet baby James..”
“She’s talking about your dad again.”
The orderly at the nursing home greeted Ginny at the door. A voice behind her said, “Is mom ok?” Her bother Jimmy walked in behind her. Jimmy was the polar opposite of her physically. While she was small and brunette, he was blonde-headed and extremely tall. And like their father, he was in the Navy. He was an ex- SEAL who had retired to become an old Southern Lawyer in their hometown.
Like most brothers and sisters, Jimmy and Ginny had fought like cats and dogs when they were younger. But as life became crueler, they had grown closer. As they said their long goodbye to their mother, the realized how much they needed each other.
“She’s talking about dad again,” Ginny said calmly to Jimmy. “But this time, he’s in the room with her.” Jimmy shot a look at his sister. “And I swore I saw him this morning at the pond.”
Their father James had been a decorated Navy captain. He was ten years older than their mother, blonde and roughly handsome. He had captained the last of the battleships and like the mighty ship he commanded, projected power wherever he went. Cancer had stricken him down quickly and brutally. As he lay dying in the hospice, he promised his wife that he’d come back after her some day. As Jimmy and Ginny looked at each other, they realized that today was that day.
The siblings walked in the room where their mother gazed out the window toward the river. “Hello nice people,” their mother’s voice was singsong but weak — not the booming voice that had shaped them into who they were today. “I’d love to play today, but I have company. My husband the Captain is here. He’s the love of my life.”
Ginny said calmly, “Yes, ma’am. I’m your doctor and I’m here to check your vitals. Is that OK?” Her mother nodded and sat down on the bed. Ginny listened her mother’s heart and could tell it was weaker.
“Have you met my husband the Captain? He’s so amazingly handsome. He fought in Gulf War, you know. His battleship was a legend. Oh, here is right now. The Captain is going to take me away.”
Jimmy and Ginny’s head swiveled, looking at the door. They saw nothing except flecks of light that looked like dust in a sunbeam. Their mother smiled like she hadn’t since the Alzheimer’s had stolen her mind. “If you two nice kids will excuse me, I’m going to take a nap now.” Jimmy yelled, “NO!” Ginny stood transfixed, staring at the flecks of light moving toward the bed. And then, right before their eyes, it was joined by more light. Both moved toward each other other until they formed into one bright shape in the middle of the nursing home room.
It burned as bright as a sun and then faded slowly away. Their mother was gone. Both of their parents were gone.
Jimmy and Ginny held each other as their parents were reunited once again. And on that crisp autumn morning, a doctor and a lawyer discovered that not even cancer and Alzheimer’s could keep true love apart.
