“Mummy, I Hardly Knew You”
Photograph by John Diamond, M.D.
I was talking to a dentist friend who remarked on my mother across the room that she had dentures, he could tell.
I suddenly realized not only did I not know this about her – but so much else!
I think of her now, over twenty years dead. “Mummy, I hardly knew you.”* So, so much I never knew – and never will, not now. I’ve learned a few bits since – but only a bare few.
Who were you, really? I wish I’d known – I wish I knew now.
Towards the end, you deep in dementia, I did See into you, started to Know you, a little. And I think you did me. I believe we both needed your Alzheimer’s.
But there is a Knowledge of You that does seem to ever increase – a greater Sense of the real You, of your Soul. Who you Really were. Who you Aspired to be with me.
“Mummy, I’m starting to Know You.”
Thank You.
* A reference to the nineteenth century anti-war folksong “Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye.”
