Laundry

I just remembered this story as I was doing Mom's laundry from the weekend.

It was shortly after she moved in with me on Halloween, 2005. Caregiving was a whole new thing for me (I don't have children), and I was innocent to Mom's wily ways. She only had one bra that she liked to wear, so one night I had hand washed it, and then hung it in front of the corn burning stove in the living room so it would dry quickly. Now, Mom is of the generation that "dainties" should not be in public view. Even when she would hang the laundry on the line at home, the dainties were always hung towards the house, and shirts, pants etc on the street side so the neighbors couldn't see. Apparently, the living room was much too public, as the bra disappeared. I looked in every nook and cranny, the cupboards, the freezer and refrigerator, the oven, couldn't find that thing.

Fast forward about a week or two. I saw that Mom was eating a banana, so the search then began for the peel. That's right, the cupboards, the freezer and refrigerator, the oven, couldn't find it. Just as I was about to give up the search, I lifted a stack of papers, magazines, vet supply catalogs, etc that was sitting on the counter. Aha! There it was!

The bra, that is. Since I had just started a load of whites, and the machine had just started to agitate, I decided to throw the bra in too. Lift up the door, and there is the banana peel sitting on top of the clothes.

I laughed so hard!