The time had come when it was time to go to bed. Mama never looked forward to this time of the day. She always prided herself into being the first one out of bed, the first one to work, the last one to leave work, and the last one to bed. She always thought it was her duty to make sure everyone else was taken care of before she took care of herself.
Early to rise, she would always make sure that her family had a good breakfast. Not just cereal either. But a good healthy breakfast with fruit and milk. It made her feel right when her family was fed proper. Her mama had taught her that a healthy body is a healthy mind. And her family always had enough. She made sure of that too. Her kids came first, then her husband, then her.
After cleaning up the table, which sometimes meant throwing the dishes in the sink to be cleaned later, she would get ready and head for work. Which to her meant walking to the bus stop two blocks away, waiting fifteen minutes for a thirty-minute bus ride to a corner supermarket where she had worked for nearly 35 years. She was proud of that. Never missing a day, except when her children were born, and no more than a week at those times. She had worked her way up to store manager, and she was proud of that too. It took a while, going on twenty years to get there, but through hard work, determination, a lot of over time, they finally recognized what a loyal employee they had. The money could have been better, as it could be at any job, but she never complained. She felt blessed that her husband and her had study jobs and were able to put a roof over their heads and food on the table. And that was something to be proud of too.
They raised two kids together, one boy, one girl. Good kids really. Neither one ever got into any kind of trouble except when the boy was talked into stealing some comic books from the corner store by one of his thug friends. The owner, Mr. Roberts, knew the boy and knew he wouldn't have done something so silly unless he was talked into it, so instead of calling the police he made the boy work off the debt. Every day, except for Sunday, the boy would take out the trash, sweep the floors, and clean every can on every shelf. After inspection, Mr. Roberts would give the boy a soda and sit him down and talk to him, tell him about his time in the service, what he learned as he was growing up. When Mr. Roberts passed, the boy got up in front of everyone and with tears in his eyes explained how Mr. Roberts taught him to respect others, and more importantly respect yourself.
Her girl on the other hand, well she had no time for foolishness. The only thing she had time for was books. She discovered reading at an early age and just fell in love with it. Mama didn't understand this because she wasn't much of a reader. Didn't really have time for it. Her duty was to her family. But her girl, her prissy little girl, would tell her all about the story she was reading. And the look on the child's face when mama would surprise her with a new hardcover by her favorite author, well that would bring such a smile to her face and love to her heart.
All grown up and on their own they are. The boy went to college and is working downtown in a high-rise doing something mama really couldn't understand. He had his own house and family now and she was proud of him. The daughter was an English teacher in the next town over across the river. She would love to call mama up and tell her how proud she was of her students and a funny story about the day. And mama was happy that she was happy.
Mama had worked hard all of her life and had just enough to show for it to make her happy and that's all she needed. Material things didn't mean much to her. God and family were her life, everything else was secondary.
All of this she remembers as she lies in the same bed looking out the same window she has looked out of for over 50 years. She and her husband were able to buy the house not long after they were married. And not long after that the boy was born.
He is there, her boy, sitting in a chair across the room. Her daughter is there too, standing by the door in case she is needed. And her husband. Her caring, loving, pain in the neck sneak up behind her and goose her in the butt husband, is there too. Sitting next to her holding her hand, softly caressing her arm, nodding every time she asked if he remembers this or that.
She tells him she loves him and he tells her he loves her too and always has. And now the time has come. She is proud but she is tired. She's not frightened of the next step for she knows what is next is her reward. With one hand holding her husbands, the other reaches out for God.
