Mother Daughter Communication

By Cheryl Demas

My daughter has never spoken a single word to me without first reciting:
"Mom ... Mom ... Mom ... Mom ..."
until I say, "Yes?"
"Do you know what?"
And then she waits for me to say, "What?"
After all of that, (if shes remembered what she first came to tell me,) she begins her story.

I love it that she so willingly shares her thoughts with me, and I occasionally have to remind myself that whatever shes telling me is important to her. I need to stop what Im doing and really listen. Im thankful that Im home to listen to her when she is ready to talk. It know it wont be long before I descend from the mountain of "My mom knows everything" into the valley of "My Mom is Driving Me Crazy!" I know these days will pass all too quickly, and Ill be wishing I could hear
"Mom ... Mom ... Mom ... Mom" again.

Im not too old to remember the things my own mom said that drove me crazy. I remember the way she would wait up for me at night. When shed finally hear the door open, she would call out from her bedroom,
"Is that you?"
"Yea, Mom, Im home."
It drove me crazy. Can you name one person in the world that could answer "No" to that question? "Is that you?" Who else could it be?
Now though, I think back on those days and I can identify with my mother, sometimes I think Im channeling her. Her words come out of my mouth before I even realize what Im saying.

The mother of a dear friend of mine passed away unexpectedly last year. When I called my friend, she was going over and over her last conversation with her mother.
"Im pretty sure I said I love you when I said good-bye, but Im not sure," she said.
She so wanted to know that those were the last words that had passed between them.
But as mothers we know that we say "I love you" in many ways, from "Be careful" to "What do you see in him?" and yes, even in "Is that you?" Im sure their last words to each other were "I love you" whether they were spoken or not.

And what I would give now to hear my mom call out, "Is that you?" when I walk in the front door of my home. In fact, my vision of heaven is that when I open those pearly gates, Ill hear my mom call out
"Is that you?"
And Ill say, "Yea Mom, Im home."
one last time.