I am going to visit my mother for a few days over Christmas. She is 96. She has senile dementia, which has been coming on for about four years. In the process, she has lost her ability to scrutinize anxiously, so she is much easier to love.
Last time I visited, we had a discussion about her mother, whom she adored. I was reading "The Ozawkie Book of the Dead" at the time. Halfway through our conversation, she asked where her mother was. I gently told her that her mother was dead, and she began to cry. I explained that her mother would be about 135 years old, if she were alive. This surprized my mother. She vaguely asked about the rest of her siblings, my father, and then she brightened. "I know where they are!" she exclaimed. "They are behind the door with the window and the staircase behind it. There is a big sign on the door that says 'Keep Out'."
"Oh", thought I, "she is telling me about the Bardo, and she is getting a message from the universe."
The next day, her friend, Mary Lyn, was admitted to the unit where my mother lives. We went down to the end of the hall to visit. As we were leaving Mary Lyn's room, I saw a door across the hall with a window and a staircase behind it. On the door was a big sign that read, "KEEP OUT".
Posted by Dakota at December 21, 2003 06:01 AM