Thank you very much

Elvis week is coming up. The anniversary of his death. Do you remember the day? I do. I was about 9 years old, summer was still hot, school didn't start for another week or two and my mother had just gone back to work that day, for the first time in years.

It was also one of the first times that my sister and I stayed home all by ourselves with no sitter. She is 3 years younger then I. I don't remember much of the day. With my parent's strict rules, I'm sure we didn't do much. No one could come over to the house while my parents were gone, we couldn't go to a friends house while they were gone, couldn't talk on the phone, but at that age, talking on the phone hadn't hit me yet.

The most I remember was, we were sitting watching TV in the afternoon and in the middle of a show, there came this special report. Something that just wasn't done in the mid afternoon in the 70's. Back then there was only about 3 to 7 channels. No newsman came on earlier then 5:00 that I was aware of at time. I swear it went to a commercial before the news man came on, because for what seemed forever, my sister and I were on the edge of our seats that some lunatic had escaped jail and was on the loose near mom. My mother delivered newspapers to the stores outside of town and bundles to carriers so they could do their paper-routes. This route was at least 40 miles out of town, up and down the highway with deliveries, sure to find some weirdo along the way.

We panicked waiting for the guy to come on the air and tell us what happened.

The newsman came on and announced the death of Elvis Presley. My first thought was "that's it? No lunatic?" My sister, who up till then was never a huge fan, or so I thought wasn't, started crying and wailing. I wonder now if she could have put those girls at Elvis' concerts to shame. I felt bad that he died, but for me who was into Shawn Cassidy, Elvis was not a thing of the day.

Within weeks, my sister had Elvis posters all over her room, and his records playing. I couldn't even come into her room if I had intent to tease her about the whole situation.

Time went by, Duran Duran replaced Elvis on her wall and the Go-Go's was on the record player.

But I look back on that moment every time the nation goes into Elvis week and think of my mom going to work that day.

My mother gave me some of her handwritten diaries after I had my children in 1995. For a month when I had time to read, I read her journals and it was like reading a novel. It went back to when she met my dad and they dated in 1965, all the way to 1977. I laughed when I remembered some of the moments, and saw it from her view, and I cried when I realized what was going on in her life that she shielded from my sister and I. And I was ripped when her journal stopped on August 16, 1977. Mom had gone back to work and didn't have time to write after that. It was as if someone tore the pages at the end of a mystery book and I have no clue who was the murderer.

Mom has since taken up writing in a journal again, and I know I won't see the pages until after she passes away. I look forward to finishing the novel with a few missing pages. As for Elvis - another novel that was never finished completely. But he had manners.. thank you, thank you very much.