Mom's hat; a promise kept

It was March, 2012 and we had recently received some pretty devastating news; Mom had months, not years to live. Our hearts were heavy as she and I turned into the White Spot parking lot, having just come from the oncologist. Mom’s appetite had been waning, but it was a better day than most. She browsed the menu, turned slightly green at some of the items, but thought the chicken pot pie sounded pretty good.

We ordered our meals then visited, keeping the conversation as light as possible. We’d dealt with the elephant in the room enough, thanks. We wanted to smile a bit.

I managed to catch her half
way between "incredulous"
and "uncontrollable giggles"

Then the food came. Mom looked at it, her eyes widening. Her face morphed into one of the most incredulous looks I’ve ever seen. Eyebrows turned up toward the center, she lifted her eyes from her food to look straight into my eyes; “What is it??” As if in a daze, her eyes descended back toward the food. She snickered. She giggled. “It looks like a hat! See that? It looks like a hat!” Before long, her giggles took over and she had difficulty tackling her first few bites for the belly bouncing laughter that overtook her.

She managed almost all of it. She even impressed herself. Maybe the “laughter workout” gave her a good, hearty appetite. We travelled home in a more lighthearted mood than when we had entered the White Spot. Two months later, her body decided that it had had enough. She was about to go home to be with the Lord, but I wanted to add my voice to assure her that her family would be ok. I made a couple promises; the fun promise was that I would go to the White Spot and have a hat. It was a happy memory, and I promised to relive it.

We ended up having plenty of time in Calgary before we had to be at the airport yesterday. Mom’s oldest grandson is marrying his sweetheart this weekend. Mom would have been beaming if she could be there. She was a hopeless romantic and loved beautiful weddings; the wedding of a family member was sure to bring her to sweet, sentimental tears.

As early as we were, we decided to go for a nice lunch. We thought the White Spot would be a good option. As always, the service was great and the atmosphere relaxing and pleasant. I figured that it was a great time to relive that memory with Mom. I ordered a hat. It was every bit as good as Mom said it was; in fact, better, because it held such an amazing memory. I can still picture her bouncing in the booth across from me. Today was a promise kept.