Sunday, Dec. 22
Mama must have gotten up around 5:30 this morning. She didn't want to be late for Sunday school and Church! She started fussing at me to get up and get dressed about 6:15. Now anyone who knows me understands that I am not at my best that early in the morning. I kept telling her I would get up in a minute. She kept coming and fussing at me to get up. I finally gave up around 7:15 and stumbled out of bed. She started fussing that we were going to be late. I took my shower. She came by the bathroom with her scarf on and said, “Come on. It’s time to go.” I told her I was NOT going to church without any clothes on. She said, “Come on, it’s time to go.” I just closed the door and went on getting ready.
As soon as I was dressed, she decided she needed to go to the bathroom. So after making me rush to get dressed, she made me sit and wait on her. We still made it to church in plenty of time.
This evening the Cedar Lane Baptist Church held a special Christmas service at 6:30 with scripture reading and singing. It was supposed to end in silence with the preacher lighting his candle and then passing the light to another who passed it to another until everyone’s candle was lit. This was to symbolize the spread of Christianity to light up the world. I went with Mama to try to make her behave. She began fussing at 5:15 for me to take her to the church. I told her we had already done this, and I was not in the mood to argue about the time. She said, “Let’s go.” I said, “It is not time yet!” She said, “Let’s go. It IS time.” We bickered back and forth until I told her that I would take her when it was time. She kept on, but I rose above it all—of course, it was probably too late for either of us to claim to be mature about this scene!
At 6:00 we headed for the car. I decided to drive by the Post Office to mail a letter. I thought Mama was going to have a conniption fit. I calmly told her I needed to mail some letters. She finally accepted it and settled down.
We pulled up to the church and there was no other vehicle in sight. I tried to tell her that we were too early. She said that people were probably parked over there (pointing to the back of the church.) I drove there, no one was there either. She said she was going in with or without me. So I parked the car just as someone else pulled up into the parking lot. We went into the church. Trauma number uno: Mama always sits on the right hand side of the church. Everyone was to sit on the left. It took both the preacher and me to get her to the correct side. Then the preacher told Mama she would have to be quiet since this was a special service. She just smiled. She was pretty good until we were passing the fire from candle to candle. She yelled out, “Connie and I went….” I put my finger over her mouth and told her to “ssshhh.” She knocked my hand away and said, “Don’t do that. Connie and I….” I put my whole hand over her mouth, she pushed my hand away and said, “Stop that.” She finished her sentence, “connie and I went up there and I gave some to the lady and she liked it.” Translation: Connie and I went to the Methodist Church, I gave cookies to the preacher and she was glad.” The preacher said it was okay. I mean what else could he say? Then he said a few more words; said a prayer; and then directed the people in the back of the church to leave quietly.
Mama sat down and started pulling on me to sit down. I told her it was time to leave. She loudly whispered, “Sit down. He is going to talk.” I said, “Look,” pointing to the back of the church, “everyone is leaving.” She hissed, “Sit down. He is going to talk.” I hissed right back at her that it was time to leave. The preacher then came to my rescue and told her that it was time to go. She then looked around and saw that no one else was still there. Then she got up.
She hugged her way out of the church, and we came home to eat our delicious meal. She only picked up the phone once to have a conversation with the recording. Now she has gone to bed. Am sure she will get up several times because she "hears" someone outside. Just hope she goes down without too many trips to the front door!
