ANOTHER (APRIL FOOLS) DAY IN PARADISE

     I (VERY MUCH) don't like April Fools Day. It's not that I don't have a sense of humor. I just never saw the humor in tricking or fooling someone and then laughing at them. I'm a very gullible person and, it seems, I've always been the foolee not the fooler.
     This year Mother Nature is playing a trick on us. There are 4 ft. snowpiles in the yard, my tulips are struggling with the 10 inch snowfall from last week, and the poor robins are frantically picking for food in the little patches of grass that show through.
     I vividly remember our first April First here in Newton, 14 years ago. I left for the office a little behind schedule faced with a load of end-of-the-month bookwork waiting for me. About 1/2 mile up the road I realized I'd forgotten my glasses. So I returned home to get them and remember thinking "I hope this isn't a sign that it's going to be one of THOSE days." It was.

     About 2 hours into the pile of my e-o-t-m work, Daddy called. Mom, who by that time had been chronically ill for about 7 years was having a bad, bad day. He was rounding up my sisters, me, and Mom's hospice nurse. I spent the day sitting vigil with Mom. It turned out to be her last day with us. She passed away at 1:08 AM on April 2nd. We stayed with Daddy and made plans for the next day and left just at dawn.
     A little while later I was sitting at the diningroom table with my coffee, paperwork, and watching the sunrise. I was exhausted, sad, and wired. For some odd reason, I was so relived that Mom made it to April 2nd.  She didn't pass away on April First. It was as if she spared us some huge, sad joke.
     So, here it is another April First. I guess the 4 ft. snowpiles aren't all that unbearable afterall.