Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Rationale





My mom ate in silence, once looking up and taking stock of my dad. Her eyes widened, and the faintest smile crossed her lips before she went back to staring at the spoon. Later my dad told me that such a moment was “a ghost of Mom’s former self, but it’s enough to make me think she recognized me.” Well, absolutely. My rational side tells me that any facial tick that could barely be interpreted as recognition is probably just nerve endings firing randomly, some sort of side effect connected to the wretched state in which her brain resides. But my dad believes it to be my mother reaching across an impossible void, even for just a second, and touching him.

Come to think of it, it’s just as improbable that a guy was killed and came back to life three days later.


3 Comments:

At 11:04 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

again... xoxo

 
At 12:51 PM , Blogger david said...

amen

 
At 4:59 PM , Blogger 1234 said...

my grandma was on her "deathbed" for an entire week, until my family made it to visit her. No one thought she knew we were there except me, but she died right after we left. I say she was holding out.

We can never say we really know what people know.

 

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