HAW-I-YA

i introduced mom to the intornet last week. she found it mildly entertaining so i asked family members to suggest websites that might interest her. within 24 hours my daughter created a blog and my sister sent her an e-card.

(in case you don't view it, the e-card references the fact that they lived in hawaii when my sister was too young to remember it.)

now, mom still remembers some of her more distant past, but nothing i could say jogged her memory of ever having lived in hawaii. i repeated stories i'd heard her tell a thousand times. about the landlady, about one-eyed gypsies, about quonset huts...nothing.

2 days later, we're walking down the hallway and as we pass a group of residents, she exchanges big smiles and greetings with an old geezer saying, "haw-i-ya."

me - WHAT did you say?

mom - oh, that's reggie. we always say that to each other. we knew each other when we lived in hawaii.
me - (mouth open, unable to speak)
mom - we didn't really know each other well, we met somewhere on the street, i think. we always joke that we're going back.
me - cool. you think y'all will get separate rooms?
mom - oh we're not really going. it's just something we joke about.

...dementia is a curious thing.