Oh, how many times have I heard those words?
“Mom, can you bring me a drink of water?”
I know I spoke them myself, back in a time that now seems like a million years ago. And my mother always came running, bearing a glass filled with cold water to soothe me back to sleep.
And from the time my children were old enough to speak, they stood in their cribs shouting for a drink of water in the dead of night…or maybe it was breast milk…I don’t remember anymore.
As they got older they would call from their beds, “Mommy, I need a drink of water.” And I would get up and get it for them, because, like my mom before me I was a good mom, and that’s what we do, damn it.
Long after she was grown, my teenage daughter would send me a text from her bed…claiming she was sick and coughing in between abbreviations, asking me to, “Bring me H2O, pls!” And off I would run, cold water in hand for my poor child who was unable to fetch it for herself.
But tonight…tonight takes the cake.
Tonight is the first night my son is spending in his new house. He moved just a few miles away, and he was so excited to spend his first night in his new house, he couldn’t wait for such trivial things as water or heat to be turned on before moving in. He packed up the “essentials” and headed out on his new adventure, his dog (and a space heater) in tow.
At just before ten this evening, he called me to say he’d forgotten something. Or maybe he was just lonely. Either way I headed out to take him a cup of sugar (or a bag of dog food) and to visit his new house. This is when I discovered he didn’t remember to pack any water for himself or the dog, and didn’t even have many of the essentials of living. So we hopped into my car and headed for the grocery store.
After filling a cart of everything we needed (minus the bottled water we set out to buy) we checked out and headed back to his house to realize we’d forgotten the most important item on our list.
“Can you just run to the house and bring me back some water?” He asked.
Um…No…I couldn’t. Not this time.
Instead, I reached into the cup holder in my car to the half bottle of water there, and into the backseat where there was another full bottle of water and handed them both to him. That would be enough to hold him over til the morning…when the water will be turned on.
Sometimes you just have to let go. As difficult as that may be.
And it is so hard…
Until the next time…I’ll be getting water for the dogs!