Elgan speaks
...and her words thunder across the land

Quatrevingt-neuf

Friday, Apr. 11, 2008
10:39 a.m.
My mother is 89 years old today. I just got off the phone from wishing her a happy birthday and I am a little shaken. The last time I spoke to her, which was only a few days ago, she told me she had been to see Ruthie, the widow of a first cousin, who had asked a cousin of hers specifically about my mother. So Mummy put on her coat, got on public transportation, and went out to see Ruthie, who apparently enjoyed the visit immensely, according to the cousin. Today she told me Ruthie had died.

Her chronology was all mixed up, she didn’t know what day of the week it was, and several times in the telling she forgot who Ruthie was. I eventually got it out of her that the funeral was yesterday, that it was a lovely day for a funeral, that she had visited her parents’ gravestones at the cemetary, that my brother had accompanied her, and that my son was over there for supper last night. However, many times during the telling she got stuff mixed up, couldn’t remember my brothers’ names, thought I had two daughters even after telling me that Buddy Boy had been there last night, and couldn’t retain the information that Little Princess would be moving to her city to do graduate work come fall. Her memory more and more is resembling Swiss cheese.

The choir show last night went all right. The lighting guy made a few mistakes, the guy in charge of sound messed up on the microphones a couple of times, but otherwise there weren’t that many technical faux pas. The mike stand on which my microphone was placed was supposed to be lowered before I got to it, and it wasn’t because the tech crew had tightened them all up so that they wouldn’t slip, and so I ended up singing with my head tilted upwards, which meant that the first few notes I sang weren’t great until I adapted to the situation. Tonight I will simply take the microphone in hand and then replace it when I’m done.

The audience was amazing. I can’t get over the energy that comes off them. The band played really well, our old friend JS on bass making all the difference. Little Princess’ violin added immeasurably to those numbers in which she was featured, and we get to do it all over again tonight. Yee haw!

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