Friday the 13th

It is 4:30am. My 82 y/o dad was not feeling well, so he called at 2:30. We scrambled for a phone, knocked it off the table and it fell into God only knows what under our bed. I announced the time and exclaimed, "oh no, this means something dead, or they are gonna be!" Got up and grabbed the phone and it was dad. He lives alone, one block away from us. He was upset and thought he was having a heart issue. He had a heart attack and double bypass surgery on Friday the 13th, 21 years ago. He had a pacemaker put in last summer. Being the good (some would argue) daughter, I grabbed my medical bag and headed down there. I think he was in a little pain (although not heart related). After sitting with him for a bit, took his blood pressure, checked his pulse, felt his head, got him some meds (that's a whole nother post or six), got him into bed, with the heating pad and he settled down. I came home, tried to go back to sleep and here I am sitting at the computer!
Today would have been my moms 80th birthday. She was born on a Friday the 13th and married on a Friday the 13th. I have always had good luck on her day. She has been gone for 21 years. I miss her still and especially today. We lost her to a heart ailment when she was 58. She always told us that "there's alot of things worse than death." I do understand this theory. In honoring moms birthday, I have always tried to do something that she would have thought sweet. I have bought carnations and given them all to her friends with a card. The card was plain on the inside and I wrote a note about some funny thing they had done together or how she loved them. One year I took some of them for lunch. This year is different. There are very few of her friends alive now. They are in nursing homes or in bad health. I saw her brother (my Uncle Roger) the other day. He is younger than she. He did not know I was there. He has become even shorter than he was and staggered with pain as he walked. I am not sure how mom would have looked on her 80th birthday and I wish she were here. Hell, I wish she were here everyday! But, I would never wish her any more pain. And to this day I will honor her in a special way.