Big Fish/Little Pond

Forty-nine degrees! As in, it's 79 right now in Sebastian, Florida, at my home. It's 30 in Taunton, Massachusetts, where I'll be flying tomorrow. Tell me again how you like the seasons up there, will you? And please don't tell me the leaves are beautiful in the fall (I used to rake a half-acre full of dead leaves every fall, and it wasn't that much fun), or that you love the snow (I do, too, when it's on TV. I personally experienced snow for 43 years, and I can tell you that driving down here in a rainstorm is a lot less life-threatening than trying to get to the office before your meeting when the snow is blowing straight from Hell!).

When I lived in Newburyport, Massachusetts, before I moved to Florida eighteen years ago, I used to love to count the cars off the road on I-95 during our first snow of the year. The same idiots who flew past you doing sixty in their 4-wheel drive SUV's were the ones you'd see in the ditch, or up against a guardrail, just a few miles down the road. I always kept count; it was just a personal thing to retell later at the office. The number was always about the same; 15-20 vehicles, every year, during the first snowstorm.

Crazy, right? Newburyport is in the northeastern corner of Massachusetts, north of Boston. Back then, my trip was about 20 miles on I-95, so I averaged about one wacko per mile (give or take a little). Every year! What's even funnier is that a majority of these wrecked vehicles were from Maine (thus the title of "Maineiacs"). It's as if living in Maine, a decidedly cold place, protected them from going off the road in snow. I drove a 4-wheel drive Jeep, but I stayed at a safe pace and left early. Not the Maineiacs! It was "pedal to the metal" all the way until they hit the hidden ice patch.

Why would I want to fly into this hellishly frigid place when it's so pleasant here in Florida? For the same reason that so many of us do the unthinkable; it's for family. My mother passed away last week after suffering from complications that developed after hip replacement surgery. The surgery was successful, but she had to be placed in a nursing home for her rehab. There was no way my 84-year old father could take care of her, so there wasn't really an option. She hated it there; not because it was a bad place, but during her entire lifetime, all my mother ever wanted was to be in her own home surrounded by her family.

The sight of people sitting around waiting to die (God's waiting room came to mind on my visits) was probably too much for her to handle. It was a depressing place, but my Dad and my sister Jane went to visit her every single day, and were there with her when she peacefully passed on. The rest of us went there when we could, but we all wish it was for a little longer, and under better conditions. We will all miss her dearly.

And so, my friends, I'll be flying into the cold North tomorrow with a heavy heart. Honestly, I would go through anything to be with my family for the next few days. I'll see aunts and uncles, cousins and old friends that I haven't seen for years, and we'll get to catch up with each others lives. We'll talk about the old days, tell some good stories and probably some bad, but in the end, we'll all be together to celebrate the life of a woman dear to us all.

It's been said that I got my personality and my sense of humor from her, and for that I'm very grateful. She was a lot of fun, and had a great smile. She was an "old-fashioned lady" who everybody loved to be around, so it will be very difficult to say goodbye for the final time, but Life helps us all move on. Her memory will always be in my heart. I'll see you on the other side, Mom!

Mark T. Bradbury, Author

Literary Associate of Little Pond Publishing

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For information on my new eBook, Serpent's Curse, please follow the link:

http://littlepondpublishing.com/book-titles/serpents-curse-by-mark-t-bradbury/