I moved to the great State of Wisconsin the day after graduating from college. For years, Mom called me every Saturday morning. She eventually switched her call to Thursday evening when she realized that she ended up talking to my answering machine far more often than she talked with me on Saturday mornings.
Mom was funny about her calls. She never did catch on to the whole unlimited long distance thing and insisted on arguing that she would call me back anytime I called her so I wouldn't have to pay for the call. I would explain - for what seemed like the thousandth time - that I had unlimited calling and wouldn't be charged for the call. She would invariably ask several times during the conversation whether I was lying and was going to be charged for the call. She often insisted on hanging up and calling me back because she didn't believe me. At some point, I decided it just wasn't worth arguing about and I just waited for her Thursday evening call each week unless I had something really urgent to talk with her about.
The Thursday evening calls worked well for quite a few years.
That is; until Survivor came on television.
I never watched a single episode of Survivor, so I can't say anything about it one way or the other. Mom, on the other hand, never missed an episode.
She talked about the various participants and the associated story lines despite my total indifference to the program. It was important to her so I just let her talk.
I could set my watch by Mom's call each Thursday; well the end of the call, anyway. Mom had to be off the phone by 7:00 so she didn't miss a moment of Survivor. We could be talking about a major issue in one of our lives and she would break off the conversation so she could catch the show.
I suggested she call a different night many times, but she insisted that Thursday night was perfect. Maybe she just wanted to make sure she had an "out" to get off the phone. Initially, Diane seemed shocked that I was off the phone so quickly until she noticed the time and remembered that Mom had to be off the phone before the show.
We used to laugh about it all the time.
Thursdays were kind of strange for a while after Mom died. I would catch myself waiting for the phone to ring - but it never did.
Maybe Mom was so captivated by Survivor because she was one. In fact, Mom was the ultimate survivor. I remember her telling me about her carcinoid diagnosis. She was unfazed by the prognosis of five to eight years. She was determined to live life without keeping one eye on the end. She continued to go about life as normally as possible; although the disease, and its treatment, took a major toll on her body.
Mom lived many years beyond the doctors' wildest dreams. Although it was the carcinoid that ultimately ended her life too soon; no one could ever say that carcinoid killed her.
Mom was a survivor in the truest sense of the word.
What I wouldn't give to have her cut our conversation short again just one more time so she could catch the beginning of Survivor.
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