Primo: I had a morbid thought.
Me: What?
Primo: What if my mom dies?
Me: Well, she is going to.
Primo: I mean soon.
Me: Well. That is a possibility.
Primo: I know.
Me: Would there be a funeral?
Primo: I don't know.
Me: If there were a funeral, I expect I would need to go. But if there is no funeral....
Primo: Yeah.
Primo: I was thinking I should take something to wear to a funeral back with me.
Me: Or you could leave something that I could take. I mean, if there is a funeral, I would be going.
Primo: Yes! Good idea! What about what I am wearing now? [He is wearing dark slacks, a blue shirt, a tie, and a dark sport coat.]
Me: That would work.
Primo: Not too casual?
Me: Not for a funeral home. It's not like your dad would have anything in a church.
Primo: Nope.
Me: The only thing is-
Primo: What?
Me: The dress I wore to my dad's funeral? I never wore it again. I gave it to charity.
Primo: Oh sweetie. I'm sorry.
Me: Thanks.
Primo: I wish I could have known your dad.
Me: He would have really liked you.
Primo: I would have liked him.
[We both pause as we - or, at least, as I - think about the injustice of Sly being alive and mean to people, while my dad, who was beloved, is dead. My dad, who didn't even have his seventh-grade math students at the DOD school at Sigonella Navy Base on Sicily for an entire semester, but for whom those students had not one but two bake sales to raise the money to buy a yearbook for him and mail it to him with all their signatures. My dad, to whose funeral in a small town with no stoplights flew friends from around the US, one couple bearing a ham in their laps. Sly, alive. My dad, dead. Not fair.]
Primo: I don't think I would attach that kind of importance to my clothes.
Me: OK.
Primo: Why don't I just put everything here and if you need to come, you bring them?
Me: OK.
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you know, this like watching an accident in slow motion. no doubt what's going to happen, but absolutely no way to stop it. so sorry.
ReplyDeleteYes! I think I was thinking of this comment when I answered your note on the next post! It's the inevitability of it that PRIMO TRIED TO PREVENT.
DeleteI have been checking your blog, wondering what's happening with Doris. Like Webb, I fear there is no happy ending to this story. Poor Doris, it's so unfair. (Unfair for your Dad, too.)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Emma. I feel bad for Doris and I really miss my dad. He died 18 years and two weeks ago. I never knew how lucky I was to have a good dad until I met Sly.
DeleteThat's so sweet about the bake sales. Your dad must have been a wonderful man.
ReplyDelete--Tammy in Memphis
Thank you, Tammy. My dad was great. He was a kind, loving man and little kids loved being around him because he was gentle and would talk to them. I miss him every day. His students loved him and they had him less than a semester.
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