Retirement party, the venue, worries

Mama and I went to a retirement party for my boss last night. It was a small gathering of his boss and his direct reports; eighteen people in all. Mama got to meet all my peers and we got to meet some of the wives of the people I work with. It was a good time, very relaxed, very casual, a tiny bit somber. Mama and I sat with my boss’s boss and my polar opposite. It would have been less pleasant has we not settled some of our differences a couple weeks ago.


The party was held at a bed and breakfast near Lake Meredith, outside of Fritch, TX. The owners have built a log home with six bedrooms and a detached cabin that will sleep six. It is very tastefully done, very welcoming, beautifully and expensively decorated. It sits above a spring fed lake – very unusual for the area – that is about four acres in size.

Mama and I walked down to the lake and passed the most enormous cottonwood tree I have ever seen. The fish were popping out of the eater to get the flies buzzing around. It was almost dead silent. Across the lake is a cliff colored in the deep red of the area. The moon was out, bright and full. In an area suffering a severe drought, it was an oasis; wet, green and alive. The owners really do have an unusual place and I think they have maximized its potential.

As we make the final preparations for vacation, Mama is beginning to worry. The little ones she watches are not well and she is afraid they will not be properly cared for in her absence. I think that is what the children in her care have always loved about Mama without ever being able to understand it. Even the little ones at church, no more that we get to interact with them, sense the genuineness of the attention they receive.

She is worried that the several months old, who has an ear infection, will not get the proper formula and constant ministration of ear drops necessary for him to recover. She is worried that the oldest one will not get enough sleep, especially his afternoon nap – which he really has come to love. She is worried that the middle child, now walking, will get overlooked and while the other two keep a care giver distracted.

I am sure they will survive, and thoughts of a princess birthday party are providing a strong incentive to make the trip. Sometimes I think Mama forgets that all these children do have a mother and father and, more often than not, they will do just fine with whatever level of care they are able to provide.

It is her nature to care in that way – one of the things I love about her.