It's time -
Feb. 13th, 2004 07:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kyburgI heard about that little old couple getting married in San Francisco yesterday - could have sworn the picture was taken downtown in Hemet, though.
I have known so many like them.
So has my mother. She was their nurse in the biggest employer in town, the Hemet Valley Hospital. *thinks* When she retired about four years ago at the age of 76, she had worked there and within the Valley Health System for over thirty years.
She worked nights when I was a kid. Hmm. Longer than that. But I got to see her before I went to school in the mornings, she on her way to bed, me on my way out the door.
There was one morning, I think I might have been 9 or so. Young, I remember that. When she came home with That Look on her face. And late. Very late.
She did that, when she was needed and couldn't get away. Mom never abandoned a patient in her life.
But this was because someone had died on her shift, and she was helping the survivor make funeral arrangements.
He was 69, and his partner had been 65 years old. Ladies and gentlemen, my introduction to homosexuality at the ripe old age of 9. It's 1970, guys. Long before AIDS, long before Pride - and my mother is so angry she's almost in tears.
There was nobody to call to help him make the arrangements. Because they were gay, they had been totally abandoned by every member of both their families.
My mother can't imagine what we would have to do to be treated like that by her. I'm much the same way. They hadn't hurt a single person, they had done nothing wrong. Arrested for no crime committed against anyone. There was nobody to come but this nurse who could only spend a few extra minutes before she had to get home to her kids. Nobody. I think she felt worst about the fact she was certain this man would die soon of a broken heart, and nobody would even notice. It happens a lot, out there. Lifetime partners don't survive each other by much.
Ask Mom about abortion and she gets the same Look on her face. She doesn't talk about those things much, and you often stumble across tidbits when you talk about other things. They are the things that are not right, but you have to accept their existance or worse things come.
So.
Yesterday, I said to myself, "Here's one for you, Mom. Never again."
And when people say "You're just like your mother," I thank them.
I do have the coolest mother on the planet. I've known that since I was very small.
I have known so many like them.
So has my mother. She was their nurse in the biggest employer in town, the Hemet Valley Hospital. *thinks* When she retired about four years ago at the age of 76, she had worked there and within the Valley Health System for over thirty years.
She worked nights when I was a kid. Hmm. Longer than that. But I got to see her before I went to school in the mornings, she on her way to bed, me on my way out the door.
There was one morning, I think I might have been 9 or so. Young, I remember that. When she came home with That Look on her face. And late. Very late.
She did that, when she was needed and couldn't get away. Mom never abandoned a patient in her life.
But this was because someone had died on her shift, and she was helping the survivor make funeral arrangements.
He was 69, and his partner had been 65 years old. Ladies and gentlemen, my introduction to homosexuality at the ripe old age of 9. It's 1970, guys. Long before AIDS, long before Pride - and my mother is so angry she's almost in tears.
There was nobody to call to help him make the arrangements. Because they were gay, they had been totally abandoned by every member of both their families.
My mother can't imagine what we would have to do to be treated like that by her. I'm much the same way. They hadn't hurt a single person, they had done nothing wrong. Arrested for no crime committed against anyone. There was nobody to come but this nurse who could only spend a few extra minutes before she had to get home to her kids. Nobody. I think she felt worst about the fact she was certain this man would die soon of a broken heart, and nobody would even notice. It happens a lot, out there. Lifetime partners don't survive each other by much.
Ask Mom about abortion and she gets the same Look on her face. She doesn't talk about those things much, and you often stumble across tidbits when you talk about other things. They are the things that are not right, but you have to accept their existance or worse things come.
So.
Yesterday, I said to myself, "Here's one for you, Mom. Never again."
And when people say "You're just like your mother," I thank them.
I do have the coolest mother on the planet. I've known that since I was very small.
