A pendulum clock hung on the wall in the room where my mother died. It was a plastic knock off of the classic Regulator clocks that hung on many important walls throughout the twentieth century.
It recently hung on a wall in a small hallway in my flat. A wall between George’s bedroom door and the bathroom door. Across from the clock is a crucifix. I figured hanging both outside George’s room would protect him while he slept.
Last night I gave George a hug and kiss and told him goodnight. I closed the door to his bedroom and turned around knocking the clock off the wall. Plastic pieces scattered across the floor and the hands stopped at 8:57pm.
The clock that hung on the wall in the room where my mom died is resting in the kitchen garbage can. It was just a cheap Service Merchandise clock that I destroyed in a flash. The clock that told my mom the time during her final moments was gone.
My mom kept looking at that clock waiting for our final goodbye. I was frantically driving down to Indianapolis on I-65 as she watched the time run out on her life. I showed up twenty minutes late. She died as I was driving between Lebanon and I-465.
I took the clock off the wall after I said goodbye to my mommy. That clock stood outside my son’s bedroom door ever since. Before I haphazardly knocked it to the ground.
That dime a dozen clock was a reminder of how precious time is. It wasn’t worth salvaging…. My mother doesn’t need to tell time any longer….
….she’s never late to fix my blanket every morning at 2:22am.
I could replace that clock with a wooden version that chimes on Amazon for $130, but it’s not the clock my mom watched time run out on.
Everything left from my moms life is in a box in my closet. Someday everything left from my life will be in a box in a closet. I wonder what will be worth keeping?
Maybe my Pinewood Derby car from 1976? Maybe my old Grundig radio? Maybe all my ticket stubs or shot glasses?
Last night I broke the clock my mom was looking at when I was running late for her departure to heaven. I’m not sure what I can hang to fill that space. Maybe a picture of my mom?
It’s going to be a rainy Wednesday. Temperatures will drop in the afternoon. It is National Gumbo Day. What I would do for a bowl of gumbo down in Louisiana. After my meal I’d stop in a shop on Royal Street and buy a pendulum clock for the wall next to George’s bedroom door.
