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TwitThis"I Never Wanted to Leave You"
Our visits with mom became more regular over the next few years, once every month or so in either Oxnard or Los Angeles. I felt myself softening. She continually told us she loved us. She took us to the movies, to miniature golf, to the beach, to stores. She let Kate date, wear makeup and lie out by the pool in a two-piece bathing suit (something Daddy forbade, saying it was "much too risqué").When we visited her, I felt like I was on vacation. "I want you girls to relax," she'd say. She bought me books, and knowing how much I liked animals, she gave me a baby chick for Easter one year. Sometimes on Sunday mornings, she would quietly pull back the covers and crawl into bed next to me, gently stroking my hair as she did when I was a little girl. At first I wasn't used to such care, and it somehow repelled me. Pretending to be groggy with sleep, I pushed her out of the bed.
She never hesitated to revisit the past; she had been a good wife and mother, she told us. "I never wanted to leave you girls," she said.
In time, Mom met Harold Hanson, a kind, simple man whom she enjoyed riding bikes with and picnicking on the beach. Their wedding was in 1981, in a lovely garden in a Presbyterian church in Oxnard. Mom looked radiant, the best I'd ever seen her, in a green silk dress and a corsage of gardenias. Those of us who knew her history cried that day. After so much loss and sadness, she had come so far. At the age of 71, she had found love again.
As the years passed, the center of our family gradually shifted away from Daddy toward Mom. "This is your home too," she'd say when we visited. Kate and I would sit out by the pool as Hal grilled steaks; Mom made margaritas and baked mushrooms, our favorite.
One day I found an ad in the paper for a used piano, and called. Bargaining with the owners, I got them to bring the $600 price down by $100. Mom was thrilled. Now she could play again. She and Hal moved the piano into their condo. The past was gone, and in its place was a brand-new life.
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