My wife, who recently suffered a respiratory arrest surviving on life support for a time before recovering sufficiently to blame me for the entire episode, once went one step further. I mention the life support since it might explain the recent memory problems she exhibits, you know... lack of oxygen for more than 3 minutes can cause damage. For example, forgetting that she spent the money I had hidden in the back of my wallet, and numerous other simular memory lapses, well today she laughed out loud while reading a newspaper columnists take on the Prime Ministers pub incident.
I stopped folding the washing and looked at her in amused amazement, assuming there is such a look. “You’ve done worse” I said, “what?”, “You’ve completely forgotten haven’t you?” blank stare, I mentally gave myself another tick in the “one up on you” column.
It was 1985, moving from our first house to our...next house. The truck had left, the car was packed with the breakables, and the obligatory “I’ll just clean up the place a bit for the new owners” had burned up two hours on hands and knees. Why do women leave a place cleaner than when they lived there? It’s like cleaning up before the cleaner comes. Anyway, sitting in the car keeping number one son amused in his safety seat, I watched her close the door after one last regretful look at the place she and I had spent years remodelling till it was Just right. She locked up and came to the car smiling, “let’s get to the new place and make a start on our new life” , I had thought she would be a little more subdued but I was just as happy to get the whole move over with as well.
She looked ahead out the windscreen and adjusted her seatbelt, I didn’t move. When she turned her head toward me I was just staring at her, I swear I wasn’t smiling, or perhaps I just remember it that way, What? She asked, “Forgotten something? I replied. The way I remember, it took at least 2 minutes for her to grasp the gravity of the situation. I’m sure her face turned several colours before it settled on bright red, “The baby!”
As she left the house She would have had to walk right past the bassinette holding number two son left on the lounge room floor. I had made sure the cat was in the car, does that mean anything?
The column she was reading in the Sydney Sunday Telegraph, by Mia Freedman mentioned the Prime Minister incident perhaps with the sole purpose of using the punch line.....”Don’t you just hate it when that happens?”
Perhaps not, looking back now, with both number one and number two sons still living at home, I’m thinking, sometimes we get an opportunity in life we just shouldn’t pass up.
JAWhite
Sydney 1012
