"Mom I have something for you." Kathleen handed her mom a little box.
"Thanks sweetie." she said as she opened it.
"I hope you like it. I didn't know what else to get you." Kathleen said as she waited for her mom's approval.
"Oh honey, I love it. What is on the tape?" she asked.
"Here I will put it on." Kathleen said as she took the tape and walked over to the table that held the tape deck in the hospital room that she had come to know well in the last few months.
Her mom had been diagnosed with some disease that had kept her from spending time with her daughter. With her husband gone all she had was her daughter. Her daughter had taken the diganosage well. But it killed her to see her mom dying. She had quit what she loved most to spend more time with her mom. Yes, she did miss acting and dancing but she loved her mom too much to leave her alone for long periods of time.
As the first few lines of the song Kathleen had recorded came out of the speakers' tears started to fall from her mom's eyes. When the line "And the perfect son" came through she just smiled.
"It was a guy that wrote it." Kathleen said as she smiled.
"I love it honey, will you help me put this on?" she asked as she held up the necklace that Kathleen's mom held in her hand.
"Sure." Kathleen replied. As she put her hands around her mom's neck to buckle the necklace she knew that this would be the last mother's day that her mom would be alive for. Over the last couple weeks her condition had worsen and they knew it was a matter of days till' she would be gone. Kathleen always kept a smile around her mom but inside she was falling apart. She didn't want to lose her mom.
******A Year Later******
"Honey you ready?" Brian asked his wife?
"Yeah just one more second please." Kathleen said. She sat in the grass next to her mom's grave. She had brought a dozen roses to place on her grave for today. It had been a little more than a year since her death.
Sarah Emily Patterson
September 23, 1952 --- May 21, 1998
A great Mother and Friend
To the Perfect Fan.
"I love you Mommy. I wish you were here to see everything now. A few weeks after you left I meet this really sweet guy. And you know that song I gave you last Mother's Day? The Perfect Fan? Well he was the one that wrote it as it comes out. Life is good. In seven months you will be a grandmother. I miss you so much. I don't know what to do anymore mommy." Kathleen said as she started to cry.
Brian walked up to her and put his arm around her.
"Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh it is okay honey." He said as he held her.
"I miss my mom Brian. I want my mommy back." Kathleen cried into his shoulder.
"I know you do honey. I know you do." He said as he held her.
"Mom you were always the Perfect Fan. I love you." Kathleen said as Brian helped her into the car.
As they left the cemetery a little voice said, " I love you Kathleen, Take care of her for me Brian." As fast as it came it was gone. Both Brian and Kathleen just looked at each other knowing who it was.
