Mom has a bit of a crush on her nurse Matthew who has dark brown hair and brown eyes, wears a full beard, and laughs a lot.
He asks her all kinds of questions during his visit and she loves to tell him stories. No subject is off limits. Last Tuesday, the subject was their families.
They were talking about the name Ruth. Matthew’s grandmother’s name is Ruth and Mom wanted him to know that was her name as well. Matthew told us about some of his grandmother’s adventures, and the next thing I know, Mom was spinning a tale about her own childhood. Although I wasn’t taking notes, here is the story as best I can recall:
When Mom was a teenager, she wanted to travel all over the world. She asked her daddy if she could go. He said that was fine as long as she took him with her. He didn’t want her to go with the crowd, so she didn’t go with the crowd wherever they were going. She and her daddy left together and went out to the wild, wild west. She loved living there.
Matthew asked what she did out there. She said, “Whatever you have to do in the wild, wild west!” He imagined her as a saloon girl which gave us all a laugh. She told us that she hadn’t been a saloon girl, but she had married a man. Now, what was his name? That was our cue to be part of the story. We settled on “Roy” because of Roy Rogers and Judge Roy Bean. Roy was a good name for a man from the wild, wild west.
For more than 30 minutes, Mom spun her tale. It was so fantastical and I really don’t know that there was a single element that she didn’t make up. Matthew laughed and was thoroughly entertained. He did turn to me and ask if it was the truth since she was very sincere and methodical in her tale. I just laughed and explained she has become quite the storyteller since her mind started to wander, but some of the stories contain a nugget of truth. Although it’s sometimes difficult for me to go with her story and imagine with her, this was an exception and we all had a good time.
I’m so grateful that we still have the good times.
