[/caption]Over spring break, we took a trip to St. Louis, Memphis and on to Pranee (the beautiful, magical land my sister and brother-in-law own in the middle of Tennessee where Ellie's cremains are buried). One day while I was getting ready in Memphis, I (in my head not out loud) told Ellie that I was available for a conversation if she wanted to tit tat (talk chit chat). Suddenly I smelled honey. I thought, rationally, I do have Burt's Bees Baby lotion. But it was in a diaper bag across the room and had not been opened since the previous day. Then I pondered what does honey mean? What could Ellie possibly be telling me?
Then I got it. "Honey" was the term of endearment she liked to be called. When she was a tiny baby I called her all sorts of nicknames, since she couldn't protest. The one that stuck was "sweetheart". Well when she was maybe 4 or 5, she told me she preferred to be called "honey". This was a challenging transition as I had heretofore been referring to Thom as "honey". After
[caption id="attachment_4622" align="alignright" width="300" caption="My mom snuggles with Lotta Joy."]
[/caption]much prompting on Ellie's part, I finally adjusted to calling her "honey" and sometimes "honey bunny".
Near the end of her life, I sometimes slipped and reverted back to "sweetheart". One day my mom was sitting with Ellie, a day when Ellie was no longer verbal. My mom called her "sweet heart". Ellie scrunched up her face and shook her head vehemently. My mom was shocked at such a strong reaction, when most of the day Ellie had been laying in bed, not moving, just looking around. My mom asked if Ellie wanted to be called "honey" and Ellie responded with a head nod to the affirmative.
Wange huh? Sweetheart would definitely be harder to send as a signal, don't ya think?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.