On October 15, 2011, I got a call from my brother telling me the nursing home called to say they didn’t expect Mom to make it through the night. I was not only 120 miles from where she was, but I was over another 100 miles on the other side of Huntington.
The band was about to perform for final competition and would still be in Chesterton for another couple hours waiting for results. One of the parents offered to leave the competition (missing the band’s performance) to drive me back to Huntington. Mom had not been very conscious for a while. I knew if she had been, her strong desire would have been for me to…
“Stay with the band”.
I did, and it was 1:30 AM when we arrived back to Huntington. My plan was to sleep for an hour and then take off for Covington. It was about 2:00 AM when brother called again to say, “She’s gone.” I wouldn’t have made it even if I had kept driving — and probably not even if I had immediately left the competition.
She was buried on my birthday three days later.