IT WAS TOO LATE


A woman visits her mother who is dying in the hospital. For many years it was only the woman to care for her aging parents. The woman had a brother who vanished from the family's life many years before, never to check on his parents, never to have learned that his parents died, to have not been there through their trials and tribulations.

Still, the brother was regarded as the favorite, since he was born and always. This was always made clear to the woman. As she was a child, growing up and as an adult. The woman who carried her father to the hospital and sat with him day and night until he died. The woman who visited her deaf and tiresome mother constantly, and brought her children to see them both over and over, even though the neighborhood had become terrifying. The brother never made contact nor allowed his children to and his parents still upheld him as the shining example of a son/child. The woman was told many times how brilliant and clever and attractive her brother was, how she should be more like him.

On her mothers deathbed, the woman leaned over and strained to hear her mother's quiet message since she could only rasp, as her mother lay dying, her last words to her daughter were " I love you so much. You are the best child a parent could have. You are my favorite."

Alas, it was too late, it was too late. The woman discovered that the words she had always longed to hear, would have given anything to hear, no longer had meaning. It was too late.


aBuzzotta Millenium collection 2003