Dad smiles slightly in his sleep, and I stroke his hair, brushing the few strands that come off onto my hands away onto the carpet. Turning for now, I go out into the living room, where Mom's daze is even deeper, but at least she's talking coherently. “Oh, hello.”
“Hello,” I reply, just going with it. I can see it in her eyes, she doesn't recognize me at all. “How are you today, Marie?”
“I hope my daughter gets here soon, she's late. Do you know April?”
I nod and take the one of the other chairs. “I'm sure she'll be here soon. In the meantime, can I ask you for some advice?”
“I don't know . . . some days I feel like I can barely think straight, but I'll try,” Mom says. I can tell in her voice that somewhere inside her, she knows what is happening, even if it's only peripherally. “What's going on?”
“My boyfriend got a new job offer,” I say, leaving out names. Mom doesn't need to be confused. “It's far away from here though, and while the money's great, I don't know if I can go with him. My . . . my parents aren't in good health.”
Mom rocks back in her chair, and I notice that she's using a chair that is actually meant for rocking. I hadn't noticed that before. “This boyfriend. Do you love him?”
I nod, wiping at my eyes. “I do. But I love my parents too. How can I choose?”
Mom thinks about it a bit, then hums. “Do you know that Adam and I almost never got married?”
I blink, surprised. I'd never heard about this before. “Really? How?”
“We met when I was just out of college, having accepted a job with the provincial government to teach at a rural school near Fort Frances. It was just a stone's throw away from Minnesota, and is close to part of the First Nations band land Adam belongs to.”
I knew that Dad and I are part First Nations, and that our band lands are spread out through various points in Ontario mostly, but there are some in Manitoba. I've never made a big deal about it, just a little about what Dad has taught me spiritually. Then again, Mom took me to church too, so I guess that's a little mixed up as well. “I didn't know. How was it?”
“Amazing . . . beautiful, and meeting Adam was . . . well, he's a great man. Strong, a bit stoic I'll admit, but not when it comes to me or our daughter. We met when I went shopping downtown in Fort Frances, and it was so quickly evident we were deeply in love. We met in September, and by January we were a couple that had people wondering how long it would be before we got married. It was fast, so fast. But then the provincial government called.”
“What happened?” I ask, caught up. I knew Mom had been a teacher for a while when they first met, but this is all so new.
“The provincial government wanted to reassign me. The Fort Frances high school was losing a teacher, the enrollment was going down. Since I was the only teacher without any roots in the area, they decided to reassign me to London. Adam and I . . . we discussed it a lot. He had roots in Fort Frances, a job, a good life. I could have quit teaching, but I loved teaching at the time, and I was part of a provincial program that paid for my university training by me agreeing to teach for five years afterward. We debated, and in the end, we fought about it. We loved each other, but we didn't see how we'd be able to stay together.”
“Yet you did,” I said, amazed. “How?”
“He came to me one night, and before he said anything, dropped down to his knees and dug into his pocket, pulling out a ring that he'd picked up the day before in Minnesota, asking me to marry him. He said that he didn't care where we went, what happened . . . he loved me, and that he never wanted to leave my side.”
I smiled, wiping away the tears. A happy ending indeed. “So you two moved to London.”
“We did,” Mom agreed. “We got married before we left Fort Frances, and then over the summer we moved to London. The funny part was, the day he came by, I had drafted a letter that I was going to turn into the school the very next day, resigning from the program and from teaching in order to stay with him. So I guess, if I was to give you any advice, it's to let love be your guide. Your parents will understand. If you love him, go with him.”
“And my parents?”
“Will love you no matter what. I hope some day my daughter grows up to be like you. I don't know you very well, but you seem like a very nice young woman, and you've listened to me ramble on for a while now. Thank you.”
“Thank you,” I reply, getting up. I go over and give Mom a kiss on the temple, smoothing her hair. There's more gray in it now, and I wonder if her Alzheimer's is making her age faster now too. “I love you, Mom.”
“I love you too,” Mom says, her eyes clearing enough I think to know who she's talking to. She hugs me, and I hope she knows how much help she's been. “I love you too.”
Chapter 21
Tyler