Once a Mother, Always a Mother

On Friday, my twenty year old college sophomore son was driven to Towson's campus on snowy, icy roads by his dad so that he could board one of seven buses that would take over 600 Towson Tiger students to Frisco, Texas to support their football team in their quest to win the FCS Championship game.  I tried to get him to follow a few common sense precautions and tried to get him to take more food than he did, a blanket, medicines.....  My son, however, was nonplussed.  No worries, Mom.  This bus ride won't be that bad.

They departed at 7am and at around 1pm they were in southern Virginia, at a mall, to get something to eat.  He called and was in a good mood, but already tired of riding on the bus.  I have never gone 1300 miles on a bus ONE WAY, but I knew it wasn't going to be too much fun.  Later that evening he was miserable and hungry....not wanting to wait in line to get real food, he opted for a cinnamon roll.  Okay.  Now I know he won't die from a poor nutritional choice, but I wasn't happy!  The next morning he hadn't gotten much sleep and they still had several hours to go.  The worst part, however, was he was feeling sick.  I was pretty sure it was a mixture of motion sickness and that poor nutritional choice!

The bus ride got better for the last hour, with the kids singing and feeling the anticipation of finally arriving after 27 HOURS on the bus.  I was happy for my son and glad he had gotten the opportunity.  Until.....I get a phone call with a frantic son saying he had lost his wallet!  Are you kidding???  He had put it in his pocket on the bus and now it was gone!  Did you look on the bus??  Yes, but now it's locked.  Did you tell the adult in charge?  Yes, but they said you have a ticket for the game and that's all I can do.  Did you keep your money separate from your bank card so I can go and put money on your card?  No mom, it was all together and now I don't have any money and I'm starving and my stomach hurts!!

I was in tears in Walmart where I had been shopping.  No mother ever wants to hear that their child is hungry, especially when they have no money and are in Texas when you are in Maryland!!  I was panicked, but trying to think clearly to give him some options.  He couldn't make any progress and I was feeling so helpless.  I called my husband who said "he won't starve", as did my oldest daughter.  My younger daughter, however, was worried too and we tried to brainstorm ways to get him some money.  Thankfully, a friend lent him enough money to eat.  Phew.  So now I was okay again and happy he was at the game....but he still felt sick and his stomach hurt to walk.  Great.  What if it's his appendix or something and he's in TEXAS for goodness sakes!!

His team got spanked....35-7, and it sure wasn't pretty.  He called me after the game to tell me he really, really felt sick.  What am I to say?  I was so worried that he wouldn't have enough money to eat for the long ride home and then that he would be sick and miserable all the way.  I know he's an adult and I know it wouldn't kill him to be miserable, but I am the type of momma who always fixes things, and I was a nervous wreck because I couldn't fix things for my boy.

When my son got on the bus he was happy...he found his walled and he felt better.  Whew!  I hurried to bed so that I could get some sleep before the next crisis arose.  And it did, the next morning.  He was severely motion sick and very, very miserable. I have been in that position and I know you just about want to die.  Luckily he was at a truck stop where the buses were refueling and I was able to tell him to buy some dramamine.  After that I didn't hear from him for hours and hours.  I worried a bit, but was pretty confident that the meds had knocked him out, which it did.  He called me later in the afternoon and finally, finally, he felt well and was well rested and they were looking forward to getting home.

I was one happy momma when my son finally walked in that door around 11:30pm Sunday night.  He had been gone approximately 64 hours and had spent about 58 of them on a bus.  He slept till noon the next day and then got up looking for food.

I am a mother.  It doesn't matter if it is my 9 year old or my 28 year old....when one of my children is in trouble, sick, unhappy or whatever the problem may be, my heart breaks, my stomach twists and my nerves are on end.  I don't see that changing any time soon.  They are my babies, big or small.  I love them with a ferociousness that is unmatched by the most fierce of beasts.  Thankfully they are all healthy and pretty free of serious drama because I don't know if I could survive anything really big!