Night Math

Do you ever dream about family members who have passed away?

On one recent early morning, at that moment between sleeping and waking, thoughts of my mother entered my mind.  It wasn’t really a memory of her or an interaction with her; instead, I just had to do the math in my head of how long she had been gone (16-1/2 years) and how old she was when she passed (almost 74).

In making those calculations, I started thinking about all the events in the life of my family that she had missed.  She would have loved seeing my sons mature and marry.  And, of course, she would be tickled over the news of a great-grandchild.  It made me melancholy thinking about this but I didn’t have time to dwell on it.

At that hour of the morning, the mind can move at lightning speed (or enter into a loop that’s hard to escape.)  In this case, my thoughts quickly moved on to Jenni’s father.  He definitely left us too soon.  It has been 27 years.  The math is easy because it was only a few months after our youngest son was born.  I quickly calculated that he was only 62.  Oh how he would have loved to throw a baseball with his grandsons if he had been given the chance.  I always felt like I could have learned so much from him if I had been given the chance.

From there my mind jumped to Jenni’s mom.  Life was hard for her after her husband passed away so young.  She was 77 when she died 3 years ago.  Of all their grandparents, our children were closest to her and probably miss her the most.

And finally I did the math on my own father.  It was only two years ago that he passed; he was a remarkable 95 at the time.  He had a lot of wisdom to share but you typically saw it in his actions rather than heard it in conversation.

Sometimes I do have dreams involving conversations or interactions with my parents, but this particular morning was different.  It was just about math. 

Seems odd looking back now.

Who knows, I may be performing impossible quantum physics calculations in my sleep and Jenni thinks I’m just snoring.