Boots, Mother, Flora, John, Verble, Lamar, and Grover
Remember my mother was the youngest of twelve, and she’s in her fifties here, so these siblings who were able to attend her family reunion are all older than her. I don’t think it had been very long since Grover had his leg amputated. I don’t remember why it was amputated, but someone called my mother and told her the details, and I know she was really worried about him. She kept checking in to find out how things were going, and was relieved when he was finally able to go home. Then she got the rest of the story.
Apparently after Grover was driven home from the hospital, he insisted that whoever was helping him leave–maybe to run errands, pick up groceries. I don’t know. It was his first time to be alone with only one leg, and he was in a wheelchair. When his helper returned to the house, Grover was on the floor–running the vacuum cleaner.
My mother knew then that he’d be fine. I come from strong people–and they like a clean house.
I trust you’re carrying on the family tradition (of keeping a clean house, I mean)?
Suuuure I am. Well, it’s clean. It’s not clean to my mother’s standards by any means. But with dogs in the house, it never will be.
Tell me about it! Judging by the amount of hair he sheds on a daily basis, Scruff should be bald by now…
I often say the same thing about ours. At The Compound, only Guinness is not a big shedder. I could sweep up another of the rest of them every other day.
Trying to keep a house clean to our mothers’ standards would run us ragged. I know, because it takes me two days to get the house close to her standard of clean when any one visits.
Oh, there’s just no way. My mother loved housekeeping, and she adhered to a schedule that meant everything was cleaned on an intermittent but regular basis.
I do not like housekeeping, though I do like a clean house. So I try to keep mine mostly in order, and it’s not dirty. It’s just not what I’d call company-ready. Whenever anyone’s visiting, we go into a cleaning frenzy, with my finding a million jobs for Tom.