“My last dinner with my mother
After 21 years of marriage, my wife wanted me to take another woman out for dinner and a movie. She said, ‘I love you, but I know this other woman loves you too and would like to spend some time with you.’ The other woman my wife wanted me to visit was my mother, who had been a widow for 19 years, but the demands of my job and my three children had made it possible for me to visit only occasionally.
That night, I called her to invite her out for dinner and a movie. ‘What’s wrong? Are you okay?’ she asked. My mother is the kind of woman who suspects that a late-night phone call or a surprise invitation is a sign of bad news. ‘I thought it would be nice to spend some time with you,’ I replied. ‘Just the two of us.’ She thought about it for a moment and then said, ‘I would really like that.’
That Friday after work, as I drove to pick her up, I was a bit nervous. When I arrived at her house, I noticed that she, too, seemed nervous about our date. She waited at the door with her coat on. She had curled her hair and was wearing the dress she had worn to celebrate the last anniversary of her marriage. She smiled from a face that was as radiant as that of an angel. ‘I told my friends that I was going out with my son, and they were impressed,’ she said as she got into the car. ‘They can’t wait to hear about our meeting.’
We went to a restaurant that, while not fancy, was very pleasant and cozy. My mother took my arm as if she were the First Lady. After we sat down, I had to read the menu. Her eyes could only read large print. In the half-light, I lifted my eyes and saw my mom sitting there looking at me. A nostalgic smile was on her lips. ‘I was the one who had to read the menu when you were little,’ she said. ‘Now it’s time for you to relax and let me return the favor,’ I replied.
During dinner, we had a pleasant conversation – nothing extraordinary but caught up in the recent events of each other’s lives. We talked so much that we missed the movie. As we arrived at her house later, she said, ‘I’ll go out with you again, but only if you allow me to invite you.’ I agreed.
‘How was your dinner date?’ my wife asked when I returned home.
‘Very nice. Much more than I could have imagined,’ I replied.
A few days later, my mother died from a massive heart attack. It happened so suddenly that I had no chance to do anything for her. Some time later, I received an envelope with a copy of a restaurant bill from the same place where my mother and I had dinner. A note attached said, ‘I paid this bill in advance. I wasn’t sure if I could be there, but I still paid for two dishes – one for you and the other for your wife. You will never know what that night meant to me.’
‘I love you, son.’
At that moment, I understood the importance of saying ‘I love you’ in time and giving our loved ones the time they deserve. Nothing in life is more important than your family. Give them the time they deserve because these things cannot be postponed to ‘some other time.'”
