Momma Tugboat

Well it's been six years to the day Momma Tugboat took that big road to the sky. If you read my blog, or know me personally then you are aware of how I feel about my Momma. Without a doubt, Mom would much rather me laugh than cry today.
With that I will tell you something that happened to me to change my ideas about the afterlife.

One night on the ride home after going to the movies to see the much hyped "Ghost", Mom and I agreed to try and contact each other if one of us should die. Really? Yes, really. It was just an after thought nothing to it.
Years later, for Mother's Day my last gift to her was a bottle of an Estee Lauder perfume, she loved Estee Lauder and the smell of it always brings me comfort.
Mom passed one week after Mother's Day 2003
So, for about three months I did absolutely nothing but cry, cry, and cry. Going back out on the road was something I didn't want to do at all. Not to mention, I had took it on myself to take care of my stroke-ridden Dad.(That's a story in its self)

Well Ho's, In late August 2003 three months after her leaving me, I went on my very first run accepting a load to Bend, OR.

Usually when I go to Bend, my visit includes a stop to Jake's Truck Stop for breakfast. Ho's this place has the best food, and pancakes the size of hubcaps.
Several times, I would say "Hey Mom, come on a ride with me out to Oregon, will go to Jake's and just hang out" she would think about it, and then say "Oh, I better stay here and look after your Dad. But, maybe next time."
So there I am at Jake's around noon on a Sunday. The waitress comes up to me, ask me what I'll have. I mull it over, and think what the hell I'll have the Liver and Onions in honor of Mom.
My meal comes, nothing out of the ordinary.
Sitting in that booth, with no one around me the smell of perfume so strong that it mask the odors of any, and all things in the Restaurant overcomes me.
That perfume, THAT PERFUME...
For the next few seconds I sit there paralyzed. Tears begin to flow uncontrollably, the waitress who is an older women comes up and immediately recognizes something has happened. Without missing a beat I ask her "Do you smell that perfume? Is it strong to you?" She says, "Yes, I smell it" Thank God.
Standing up, I quickly start moving to the register to pay my bill. There is no way I can sit here and come undone. The waitress wraps her arms around me, and begins to hug me. She ask, "Honey, what's wrong?" I tell her the story of Mom dying, and the perfume we both could smell was something had given her for Mother's Day the week before her death. Now, the "Ghost" thing had not even entered my mind yet.
Anyways Ho's I pay the bill, get just outside the restaurant and another waitress comes bolting out the door. She's headed straight for me, before she even gets close she's already apologizing for the perfume. What? She begins telling me that she was in an area of the restaurant, getting ready to come on duty and whipped out her perfume (yes, the exact same type I bought Mom for Mother's Day) and somehow it slipped out of her hand, and broke on the floor.

It all seemed so coincidental? What do you think?
Let me tell you what I think. I think Mom just about scared the shit out of me. Yep, climbing up in that truck the tears turn into laughter, and a smile.
I'm at peace.
Even though she doesn't speak, she has not left me.
Some mark tragedy by saying, it seems like it happened just yesterday.
For me the last six years have been an eternity.

Come on Marie, Let's Ride