Yesterday, my Mom washed my legs and changed my socks. We have a routine for this and I remain sitting in my power chair in the hallway as she uses the bathroom sink to use the water to wash my legs.
We listen to music as we do this and we normally switch off between a song I like and a song she likes. But yesterday, I wanted to hear just the songs she likes exclusively.
We started off by listening to the Fleetwood Mac, “Rumors” album. That album is the soundtrack of my Mom cleaning the house when I was growing up. We listened to this entire album and she just had finished washing my right leg and putting a clean compression sock on my right leg.
So, I turned around in my living room and then backed up into the hallway between Sean‘s room and the bathroom so then I would be facing my living room so she could wash my left leg. The other album that my Mom would listen to as she was cleaning the house was Journey. I just searched, “Journey” and the “Journey Essentials” playlist showed up in Apple Music.
I know so many of those songs because my Mom listened to them during my whole childhood! But, it wasn’t until this song came on where as she was soaping up my leg, she let out, unbeknownst to her, “The unmistakable aria” that was the REAL soundtrack of my childhood! I immediately felt my heart warm and a smile form on my face and hearing it and I was taken back to being six years old and laying on the green carpet in my living room probably watching the Disney Channel. My Mom was probably washing dishes or scrubbing the tub.
I want to sleep with clean legs and new compression socks and was most content at remembering being a child and thinking of the sights and sounds of a simpler time. A time before MS definitely!
I texted all of my brothers and it was a long text to describe how I heard my Mom singing last night and I set the stage as to how it was when we were kids. I sent it to them in a group text and all of them have loved my text because they remember that too and hearing this song I’m sure they can hear ‘the unmistakable aria’ in their heads!