Last Will: Ma & The Atari & The Heart

Some years back, I found out from a great Aunt that I have both Irish and Bohemian blood in me from my Father's side. So, I guess in a roundabout way, that makes me a Pikey. In the movie, Snatch, Brad Pitt plays the world's most famous Pikey. Just like Pitt's character, Mickey O'Neill, I love my Mother.

Christmas of 1980 was a melancholish (not a word, I know) yet joyous affair. A true oxymoron yes. But it was the winter of the Atari 2600.

We didn't actually get an Atari. We got the Sears version, the Tele-Games. Same difference, as the fam would say.

We all had a blast playing games on it. It was cool to watch Don "turn over" Asteroids. Dan or Pee Wee figured out how to get "double blasts" out of your avatar in Space Invaders. Dad liked sports games. Linda and Dan played Pitfall with me all the time.

Ma only played one game, man. Frogger.

She also almost wriggled out of her orange recliner multiple times in excitement playing the thing, threatening her delicate sacroiliac. That was hardcore. Who says "Oh, my sacroiliac!"?

My Ma, that's who.

Sometimes, if you watch Law & Order enough, you learn legal terms. One I picked up on is "excited utterances". What is that, you say?

Says Google: An excited utterance is a statement relating to a startling event or condition, made while the declarant was under the stress of excitement caused by the event. As a hearsay exception (Federal Rule of Evidence 803(2)), it is admissible because the spontaneity and lack of time to reflect are believed to ensure reliability.

So, one day, Ma is really rocking Frogger. She's got that frog flying up and down The Boulevard of Broken Balls as Christopher Walken would say in a noir song on SNL. Breathlessly, Mom was having one of the best games of her Atari career. And just as she's about to break her personal high, the Frog goes splat. Ma shouts out:

"GOD DOOTS SPASTICH!"

The room freezes. We all stare at each other. And the laughter went on for an hour, maybe more.

A catchphrase was born.
One that persists to this day. You should hear Don say it.

Later Mom would almost top this moment by misremembering a mid 80's music video appearance by Dwight Yoakam. She claimed to be a big fan, and yet told me his name was Dwayne Purvis. We laughed about that for years.

Anyways, memories are what this blog is all about. I went to see my Mom this past summer with Aidan. She now suffers from dementia. Nothing is harder on memories than that. Pee Wee has done such a great job getting Ma set up in a home that has made her as happy as Ma can possibly be. My sister deserves all the loves for the effort she's put in.

When I got up to Wausau from Texas, my niece and great niece Jessica and Tia took Aidan and I to see Ma right away.

I sat in front of her, her hands in mine, Aidan to my right, hand on my back. Mom wasn't quite sure. She talked about family, she talked about Dad, memories. She emotionally thanked Aidan and I for being there. But I could tell she only had a faint grasp on who she was speaking to. As she was talking about her kids, she said she had a son.

A son named Robby.

That's when I said that it was me. I was right there.

The light went on. It all came back. The power in that moment was incredible. She spoke of memories. Of me. Of Aidan. Lichter Road, Somers. Her brothers, her Mom.

Her girls. All of them. How much she loves them. How much she loves Dan and I, those goofy sons of hers.

I love my Mom so much. I can't thank Pee Wee and Linda enough for advising me to get up there while Mom still had cognizant moments to function, to be aware. To remember, and reminisce, and love.

And of course, give you stuff. She's always doing that. That shit ain't new.

But the power of her light turning on. The look on her face. The smile in her eyes.

That was a fucking GOD DOOTS SPASTICH!! moment if there ever was one.