The doctor settles Mom in a chair facing her own. I sit in a third chair facing both the doctor and my mother, as an onlooker, a spectator.
Fear is deep inside of me, and it has grown there bit by bit through my mother’s mysterious illness. Today the fear runs deeper. Today I have no control. I can’t help her this time, only watch, and hope she’ll play the game correctly.
The doctor begins by asking my mother her name. Mom looks at me, shrugs and rolls her eyes. “I told you. Weren’t you listening?”
I try to be nonchalant … “Tell the Doctor your name, Mom.” And so she does. Come on, Mom, play along, I think.
Bio:
Lynn Kielley is a writer, producer, and video editor who has helped create award-winning television commercials for the clients of NTV, CBC, ZBM (Bermuda), and Rogers TV. She has also written, produced, and edited corporate and educational videos, as well as television programs such as In the Moment. Born and raised in the heart of St John’s, Newfoundland, she now lives in Topsail with her husband, Robert Brown, and her standard poodle, Gaia Spirit.