When my mom parked her coupe in my driveway that morning, she asked if should she take her raincoat and umbrella. “It’s not going to rain,” I said dismissively. Los Angeles has a rainy season, November to March, and it was late May. Maybe some early June gloom, but rarely rain, not even a drizzle…
-aside-
Of [...]
I haven’t seen the place where Lucille lived last. Apparently it is some sort of senior living situation, either an assisted care facility or a straight out convalescent home.
The last time we visited her in Hemet was almost 20 years ago, and at the time she lived in a little sandstone cottage that was [...]
Lucille died of pneumonia last week. After my mom’s father died, she moved to Hemet, California, to be near her sister and her friend Virginia, but her sister died almost 15 years ago, and Virginia moved to Florida a few years after that.
Lucille was cremated, and her ashes were sent to somewhere in Orange County. “Why Orange County?” I asked my mom.
“I don’t know why Orange County,” my mom said. She repeated the last three words as I did.
“What does it matter?” I heard my dad say in the background.*