Quite a Haircut

Today, after a morning of wireless design reviews at the Boston Redevelopment Authority, I dropped by Silver Shears in Marblehead to get the haircut that Joanne has been harassing me about.  Silver Shears sounds pretty hoity toity, but it isn't.... I qualify for the senior citizens rate of fourteen bucks.

And lately, I have been getting it cut stylishly short.  Trying in vain to stay relevant with the times.

So I was waiting for the young barber who does the cool cuts, when the 75 year old guy asks me if I wanted him to give me a haircut.    I told him, to buzz me with Number 3 clippers and take a lot off the top.  He gave me a modest trim and thinned out the top a little.

But I didn't have the inclination to correct him or resist.  He was talking about what life was like when he was a kid in Lynn and Salem, and I listened to his recollections and went along with whatever haircut he came up with.

A haircut didn't seem more important than listening to his stories.

Then shortly after I got back to the office, my brother called and said that my mother had passed away 15 minutes ago.  Winifred Alberta Nestor was 90 years old last March and was not aging gracefully by any means.

She was willful, and sometimes paranoid... with no filter between her head and her mouth,  So she said some pretty screwed up things over the years.  People either loved her for it, or stayed away.

But even though she was a pain in the ass sometimes, she was my Mother, and I loved her, and have a lifetime of memories - both good and bad.  She is with my father now, who has been gone for 39 years.  She never seemed attracted to any other man as far as I know.

She wasn't a person at peace with herself.  I hope the afterlife changes that.

I love you and I will miss you Mom.