Day 1 - Henderson, NV - Part Three

By the time we made it to Henderson, my mom was pretty beat. Jack and I checked in quickly to the hotel and we were off to my mom's best friend. She is the person that set my mom and Jack up on their blind date nearly 30 years ago.

It's funny to watch friends reconnect. My mom and her friend don't miss a beat. I see the familiar patterns that were there when I was a kid.

We sit and visit for a time. We drink a couple of couple of glasses of water to rehydrate before moving on to the adult beverages. I have a vodka that a cranberry allegedly went near (IT WAS ALL VODKA) and now I'm officially loaded in front of my mom for the first time.

We sit down to a great dinner of a homemade soup and bakery bread. It was really pretty phenomenal. Evidence of my mom's decline is ever present. She has to ask for a spoon that is lighter than the one she was given. (Holy crap. Spoons are getting too heavy for her!).

There is a lot of gallows humor during the discussion. We are all taking the approach of laughing about this instead of curling up into a ball and crying about it.

The irony of my mom's illness is not lost on us. Her biggest fear was that she would lose her marbles in her old age. Now, that is the absolute last thing that she will lose.

We talk about the other loses in our family. My mom brings up the death of her brother-in-law three years ago and says, "He was the first one of our generation to go."

I correct her.

"No he wasn't."

She looks at me and says "Who are you talking about?"

"My dad was the first to die."

"Oh, you're right. Your father was the first to go."

The conversation slowly moves on but I can't help be think about my dad during this time too.

He's on this trip with us too. I didn't plan on it but I packed all of my clothes in his duffel bag. His business card is still attached to it.

Welcome aboard on The Bucket Trip, Dad. :)