TML&D

13. Diet Pepsi. Not caffeine free. Not cherry. Not full calorie. Never Coke. Mom was quite specific. She drank Diet Pepsi or Twinings Darjeeling tea, and occasionally Twinings English Breakfast blended with Darjeeling, and every decade or so, Nestea iced tea. She seldom drank wine or any alcohol. Mom only drank water if there were no alternative. She felt that if you drank water, it might as well be from a trough along with the animals. To drink water meant you were at the bottom rung of poverty, and had to be homeless and unable to afford a sip of old warm soda. She found my liking for spring water utterly baffling. Having to wash down her pills with Faygo or water during her final months alive were humiliating to her, and downright gross.

14. Sensodyne Toothpaste. Mom had an endless array of dental problems and complaints, and she had countless fillings and root canals. She would always note that I should be grateful I hadn’t inherited that gene from her! 

15. Me getting on television. She was immensely proud of the fact that I’d appeared (well, my voice had appeared) in an episode of Paranormal State. She showed it off to everyone. I was surprised a bit that she wasn’t appalled by the topical material, but I came to realize she’d developed a fascination for psychic and ghost related television shows. Even though she felt that it bordered on religious transgression, merely wondering about the afterlife was not harmful– and finally my life’s work had achieved some sort of recognition.

16. Siamese cats, and cats in general. Cats, cats, cats. At one point she’d had twenty. All through my life. And every place in the house she put kitty kitsch. Photos of kittens and cats, sculptures and paintings and drawings– some purchased, but many of her own creation. Everywhere. The kitchen wall is a shrine– something like twenty framed pictures of cats on one wall alone. In the time since her passing I’ve reflected and have come to think that she saw cats as beautiful things, so immensely and innately beautiful that every appearance of them in a room lit it up with beauty like a light. Looking at a picture of a cat brightened her mood, so she surrounded herself with them. It most definitely seemed weird, but in retrospect I’m glad she found inventive ways to bring delight and enchantment to her life.