My mom attended the funeral of her best, childhood friend yesterday. Back in Seattle after, we were on our way to dinner with BFE and I was scanning the radio for something I could listen to that didn’t make me want to run other people over in mom’s SUV. I found a song that reminded me so much of college that I had to turn it up and sing as loudly as I could. You would probably recognize the song too; it was all over the radio and MTV circa 1995. The chorus goes like this:

Well, I know you’re looking down on me from heaven,
like so many friends we’ve lost along the way.
And I know eventually we’ll be together,
One sweet day.

I was really getting into it. Hand gestures and everything. It wasn’t until the word “sweet” in the last line that I realized how inappropriate a song it was on the day mom said goodbye to her oldest and dearest friend. At “sweet,” I changed the station as quickly as I could and felt myself choking up. I couldn’t even apologize to mom because I was starting to cry so hard. Once I could muster a “I’m so sorry. What a horrible song to make you listen to today,” I looked over at mom and saw tears streaming down her face. She said, “I didn’t want to say anything. You were having such a good time.” And we both started laughing.

I felt so bad about it that I took her to the Tin Hat and got her kind of drunk. I know that doesn’t make up for my faux pas, but, damn Gina, it sure was fun to see her drink three Gin and Tonics.

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