Mom’s “quirks”

Mom had certain “quirks.”  She did not like the closet doors open because it would waste either the heat or air conditioning in the house.  She also did not like us putting our dirty clothes in the bathroom closet.  I guess because of the moisture.  She kept her couch covered with material she had sown on, maybe to keep it looking new.  After she passed away, these quirks came to my mind.  I would close the closet door because that’s what she always wanted me to do.  Other times, I would leave it open, but the thought of what she used to tell me would be in the back of my mind.  I do put my dirty clothes in the closet, and Dad said it would be okay to take the material off of the couch, so I did.  

I called Jennifer, and she reminded me of Mom’s “quirks” about the washer and dryer being left on.  One night, when I was a teenager, I went home early and smelled smoke near the carport.  I opened the laundry room door and noticed smoke coming from the dryer.  I opened the dryer door and noticed the clothes were beginning to catch on fire.  I ran through the house, woke Dad up, and told him the dryer was on fire.  We caught the fire in time.  Since then, Mom did not like the washer and dryer on while we were not home or once everyone was asleep.  When Jennifer was home, she made a comment to Dad about turning the washer or dryer off and Dad said, “That was one of your Mama’s things; I don’t worry about that.”

Mom also had an obsession to constantly remind my sisters and me to make sure the iron and curling iron were turned off as to not burn the house down.  Jennifer said Mom saying those things and instilling those thoughts remain in the back of her head.  She said just this week she went back into her house to check if the iron was off after she had already gotten in the car.  It was an obsessive compulsive behavior.  I added this chapter ten months after her death, and I laughed hysterically on the phone with Jennifer as we discussed Mom’s “quirks.”

She’s not here now, and I ponder these things.  You have to ponder and decide what to do with these “quirks” that have been instilled in you through your loved one.   Dad would sometimes tease me by saying, “I’m going to tell your mama!”  I think one time I responded, “She already knows.”  I wonder what she does and does not know while she is in Heaven.

U  What are you going to do with your loved one’s quirks?  U