Being a typical guy, a crying girl was my kryptonite. I never really knew what to do when they did this, so I just held her. There was a sudden transition from crying to Lily barking out a laugh.
“Sorry, I promised myself I wouldn’t cry. I guess that’s gone out the window.”
“Why don’t we go inside?” I suggested.
She pulled back from me and wiped her face, then nodded as I put my hand in the small of her back and guided her into the house. I heard everyone in the kitchen, so I steered her off to where there was an office so we would have privacy. It had a sitting area with two large comfy chairs I was sure were used when someone wanted to kick back and read a good book.
“So, you found your mom. I didn’t realize she was in California,” I said to help get the conversation started.
“Actually, we started our trip in Canada. We’ve been to Phoenix and now LA.”
“Why did she leave?” I asked.
That was the big question. We were talking about a mother who seemed to be happy in her marriage. She had two children, one of them just starting middle school, and the other either in or ready to go off to college, I couldn’t remember which. She left for work, and the last she was seen was leaving with a male coworker. Then nothing for five or six years.
Lily got a sad look on her face.
“She had brain tumors that affected her in unexpected ways.”
“Is she okay?” I asked, suddenly worried.
Lily shook her head.
“She’s changed. She lost her memory for a time, but she now remembers us. Mom told me that her life with us was more like a dream than anything else. She has a new life now.”
I had a hard time wrapping my brain around what Lily just said. If I lost my memory but figured out about my kids, I would move heaven and earth to be with them. It also sounded like the plot of a bad soap opera.
“Maybe I need to just shut up, and you tell me the whole story,” I decided.
“I’ve had a hard time believing it, too. More than anything, I wanted to simply blame my mom for leaving us. I was ready to tell her off, but first, we had to talk to her doctor so he could explain what happened,” she shared.
“Oh,” was my well-thought-out input.
Lily smiled at me.
“My thought exactly. Dr. Lanus filled us in on her background before we were allowed to meet her. It was part of the conditions she set,” Lily said.
“There were conditions to see your own mom?” I asked incredulously.
“It made me want to be even madder at her than I already was. My dad had apparently had enough and suggested that we just forget about her and go home. I keep forgetting that he lost his wife at the same time I had my mom taken from me. My brother was the one who saw reason and forced us to go.
“Dr. Lanus wasn’t able to fully explain what happened with my mom for the first few months she was missing. He suspects that the tumors caused retrograde amnesia since they were centered in the part of the brain that controls memory. Dr. Lanus told us what probably happened was that the tumors finally got big enough to profoundly affect her. He said in a small number of cases, it happens suddenly.
“The scary part was that because of her memory loss, she didn’t have the presence of mind to seek medical help. She was found in Ontario, Canada, with no idea of who she was. She was picked up by the police because she was acting crazy. When she was checked out, they discovered the tumors,” Lily explained.
“Why didn’t they put together that she was missing from back home?” I asked.
“They assumed she was from the local area. It never crossed their minds that someone in her condition could simply wander into their country. They didn’t have any missing person report that met her description in Canada.”
Sadly, that made sense.
“How did she end up in Phoenix?” I asked.
“When Mom was a teenager, her family lived there. Her memory started to come back, and she remembered her childhood. She went there to discover what had happened to her family. Once Mom found they had left, she thought she remembered them moving to LA,” Lily explained.
“Did they?” I asked.
“No. Dr. Lanus said that it wasn’t unusual for the brain to create false memories, either entirely made up or real memories misplaced in time. He’s been working with her to put together as normal a life as she is capable of.
“He warned us that her personality might have changed. Boy, had it. Mom said she knew who we were, but I’m not sure she did. She didn’t want to be touched. Dr. Lanus thought that she may have been mistreated when she first left our home,” Lily said.
It took all of a millisecond for my mind to go in several directions with that piece of news, none of them good. My heart broke for Lily.
“I’m so sorry,” I mumbled.
She had fresh tears on her face, so I opened my arms, and she was instantly sitting in my lap, crying.
“David, she’s not really my mom anymore,” Lily gasped out.
“Oh, Honey. Yes, she is. She’s just sick.”
“Do you think she’ll ever be the same?” Lily asked.
How could I answer that? I had no idea.
“I really hope so.”
