NO COFFEE!

About thirty years ago a family member was sruggling through a bad emotional patch in her life- this could bring out the best and worst of our wonderful mother-who could respond to an emotional crisis with every care and concern but also brutal honesty and imperious commands to manage healthier living habits-one summer the sister who was struggling had taken sometime off to rest and recharge out in our long island summer home-for that brief period it was only my mother, sister and i living out there-one late morning i walked in from an errand to find my mother pacing the kitchen floor listening intently to the person on the other end- the conversation had obviously been going on for sometime and it did not appear that it would end soon- it was a rare occasion when mom's interlocutor was doing a lot more talking then she was- my sister was across the counter in the kitchen- half listening-and barely noticed my arrival- as not much would happen out there with mother on the phone i waited somewhat impatiently for the conversation to end- finally she turned. moved toward the receiver, and looked as if the conversation was about to end- it did appear that she may have been receiving some instructions as to the best approach in helping her daughter- but the look on her face was barely concealed exasperation-in control but exasperated - finally she thanked the doctor in a low tone-but as the phone left her ear a surge of energy coursed through her body as she suddenly whipped the phone in midair and slammed it on the receiver-as she did this i could see her mouth forming a declaration -and i was sure the declaration would be directed at my sister- she timed it perfectly-phone landed hard on the receiver just as she said- leaning across the counter-NO COFFEE!-she spun on her left foot-and headed for her bedroom- we were left to absorb this as she obviuosly had decided to move on to the next part of her schedule that day-I imagined that the vibration of her voice carried a long distance -it travelled down the East Coast-and hit the Blue Ridge mountains where it bounced off and created a ripple effect that travelled around the world-the effect of the vibration- in the form of sound waves- became weaker as it travelled to far away places-but i am told that people rasing their first cup of coffee hesitated-just for a moment-their cup was actually suspended in mid-air-somewhere between the kitchen counter and their mouth-foir most people it was just a split second-they hardly knew why they were hesitating but one man in China sat there for five minutes-the cup suspended in mid-air-with a slightly concerned look on his face -slightly concerned and slightly puzzled-but he seemed to snap out of it in an instant and took a rather long gulp from the cup-my sister and i waited about 3 seconds- until mom had reached her bedroom-we later learned to put on her tennis outfit-and then we looked at each other-in a knowing way- i went to the coffee urn and poured us each a large strong mug of coffee-I do know what the psychiatrist meant-because the coffee was too strong -i had a sort of psychotic reaction to it and retreated to my room for the rest of the day- i would quietly warn visitors- including our Uncle- our mother's brother - to be careful with sister's coffee-mentioning the reaction i had had that morning-NO COFFEE!-has become a sort of code among us-it means WATCH OUT-or TROUBLE AHEAD!-but it can also just be a reminder of mom-who bless her heart was always way more good than bad in a crisis-and would prove so time and again in all our lives.