Weird thing about me # 5,436,872 (or 73, I lost count): Sometimes I hear voices. Not very often, so when I do hear them I tend to listen. There are a few times that stick out in my memory. The first was when I was nineteen and my dad was dying. I was along with him at his apartment during a bad spring storm. There was a lot of lightning, and the electricity went out. I was terrified he was going to die while I was there alone with him, and my older brother and sisters would kill me for letting it happen. I sat in his tiny bedroom, listening to the IV machine pump on battery power, thinking "Don't let him die tonight, don't let him die tonight." I heard a voice, and I saw a light in the corner. The voice said, "He will not die tonight." And he didn't. He died two days later, and I was not there alone.
The next time I remember most clearly was only a few months later. I was babysitting my baby and toddler nephews, and they were both taking naps. Everything was very quiet. I heard a voice say "Check the baby." So I did. The baby wasn't breathing. His face was very pale, with a blue cast to it. I gave him CPR and called 911 and my sister. Today the baby is 15 and doing quite well after surgery to fix a problem he had in his breathing passage.
Many years have passed since I heard a voice say anything useful. Today, as I was unloading my car (it's a secret what I was unloading. It starts with Ch and ends with ristmaspresents) I was inside the garage, and I heard my mom call my name. It was a specific kind of call, a certain way she says my name. It was "MaryKathrine." Like "Pay attention" not like "help me!" I walked out front to see if there were people talking and I just misheard. But, no, no one was anywhere around. So, as I prepare to leave town with the girls and travel to my mom's to be with her during her surgery for her lung cancer, I carry the sound of her voice saying my name with me. But I don't know what it means.
