I lost my mom suddenly on Sunday, eight months after I lost my dad last year. She was 59.
Memories are like a puzzle. You complete them and store them away, and sometimes the pieces break off and become lost as you make room for new ones. I would call my mother at 2AM to recollect some pieces I was missing on several occasions. "Mom, do you remember when I was about 7 years old, and we went over to North County to the arcade?" She'd fill in the details--the pieces--I was missing, rattling off where we ate, how beautiful the day was, stores we stopped at along the way... She'd laugh afterwards, saying "I'd forgotten all about that until now." We completed each other, and made one another happy, because we were friends.
In life, we experience things with individuals and we cherish those times. They are not consequential memories that fill memoirs or even interest others beyond the people who created the memories. It's up to those two or more individuals to recollect the events and piece the memories back together. Though I will hold onto the pieces that remain with every fiber in my being, I sit here brokenhearted, as the memories I made with my mother will forever remain incomplete.
Call a friend right now and recollect some memories with them. See if you can fill the pieces they're missing to their puzzle, and vice versa. Appreciate the good times you've had.
