Homestretch

non-subject: the homestretch
AWW ~ january 5, 2011
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I don't want to write about The Way this writing round. Yet, that is usually what comes to mind when I write - Way stuff.

But then, I guess if I'd spent 28 years devoted to horses, I'd probably write about horses.

I did spend at least seven years of my life with horses. As young as I can recall ponies and horses were my best friends. But I gave them up, for the most part, by the time I was 13. I wonder if they missed me.

I would often canter at the homestretch of getting back to the stable after I'd been riding in our neighborhood.

Times have changed. Fields, where I once roamed with my four-legged friends, now display mansions instead of long grasses and wild flowers. One can buy a home there for as little as $250,000. The Pines II is the development name. In The Pines I, a mansion can be had for as little as $375,000. Pines I has been around for eternity.

Homestretch. I think of Mom's last days of life. She lay in the bed at the nursing home. Her mouth wide open as she drew her final breaths. Her eyes vacantly staring beyond me. Except when I told her that Jane, her good friend and neighbor, had passed away. Mom's eyes suddenly became conscious and she moved her mouth like she was trying to say, "Thank you." Shortly thereafter myself, and my brother, and my sister, each took time separately to tell Mom it was o.k. to die and that we loved her.

The phone call came within 24 hours. The date was January 31, 2009.

Mom chose to die alone. I probably will too.

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