Positive Thinking

When the phone rings at 6:00 AM, it rarely brings good news. Yesterday morning, one of the nurses at my mom's assisted living facility called. I waited for her to say, "First of all, there's no emergency." She didn't. Instead, she explained my mother's medical condition, and said they'd sent her to a local hospital by ambulance.

As I drove to the emergency room through the predawn darkness and misting rain, I expected the worst. When I got to my mom's room, she didn't look great, but she wanted to know where she was, why she was in the hospital, and how she had gotten there. My mom wasn't unconscious for her diagnosis or the trip to the hospital, but her memory worsens in times of stress.

"I feel fine," she said. "They must have gotten the wrong person."

Nice try, Mom.