I'm sitting with Mum and other residents in the Lounge. Everyone has pretty much shot their quiver of arrows as far as conversation goes, and we're taking a break. My thoughts drift to how Mum has been relating to me today, as if I'm possibly her spouse but she's not quite sure.
I gradually tune in to the music playing on the stereo. It's Cliff Richard, singing:
Son you are a bachelor boy
And that's the way to stay.
Son, you be a bachelor boy
Until your dying day.
Just like on a previous occasion, it seems to me that a soundtrack is being scored to my life by a rather heavy-handed ironist. Evidently my story is intended for those without a use for subtlety.
The next track up is a version of "I Remember You". I try to keep my eyes from rolling. There couldn't be a less appropriate song to play in this household.
We are joined at the table by resident 'C', who notices that we are all absorbed in the music and decides to treat us to an old song I don't immediately recognise: "Around the world, I've searched for You..."
Mum looks lovingly at me and says: "I don't think I searched around the world to find you, did I?"
Actually, you know, she did precisely that. She travelled from Tokyo to the UK to adopt me when I was 2 months old.
I can't find the words to answer her right now and I just smile, and she smiles back.
Around the world I've searched for you
I travelled on when hope was gone
To keep a rendezvous.
I knew somewhere sometime somehow
You'd look at me
And I would see the smile you're smiling now.
It might have been in County Down
Or in New York
In Gay Paree or even London Town
No more will I go all around the world
For I have found my world in you.
10 comments:
With our busy days, sometimes we forget the most important parts of our lives.
Think about all her feelings for you at the time of your adoption. Love, excitement, anticipation, fear, joy.
Yes, you are special indeed!
She did that for you so that you could do this for her. There is always a plan.........
Powerful stuff
Take care
x
Trish, you're right on the money there. It was always drummed into my Sister and I that we were an investment and intended to look after our parents in their old age. I suppose they got two of us as an insurance policy (astute thinking, as it turns out).
Y|O|Y, thank you for that. I should think more often about the adoption and her feelings at the outset, rather than our difficulties over the years. Pardon me if I duck the "special" word - I tend to flinch when someone says a nice thing. Thanks, though!
The problem is though Greg that the system does not make it easy to look after our loved ones as they get older. My parents both died at 61 and I have not had to fight for their care but now that I have to care for my husband (who is now 61) I worry about the future for us both. I hope my kids have the same values as you. Your Mum is blessed............
Around the world would be one of my desert island discs, it has such resonance for me, a song I remember from the radio in my childhood and one my mother used to sing regularly. I imagine waltzing dreamily to it in an empty, candlelit ballroom...
Lily, you should request it in the ballroom on your next cruise!
What a short little delight.
We all go around the "world" to search for someone, even the distance could be short, that someone always feel like it's on the other side of the planet.
You are both blessed.
My someone is doing a very good job of staying hidden, Humph...
Hi Greg. I found this sweet in a sad way and have read it over several times. Sending hugs over yonder.
You should know by now that "sweet in a sad way" is my preferred register, LSL. Thanks for the feedback. Hugs are most appreciated and returned. I'm somewhat reassured that you've found a bit of time to read some blogs - I hope that means that your schedule is becoming a little more tolerable.
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