If I were

Mum asked me what I would do if I were able to do just one thing over in my life. She’d been asking me a lot of questions like that recently. Her skin was getting paler and more papery, and we both knew she didn’t have long now. This was our chance to have all those conversations we’d never had, each one harder than the one before.

“I wish I’d finished your grandmothers quilt” she told me. I smiled sadly, the quilt was an emblem of my childhood, my entire life’s memories are scattered with images of fat quarters, and pieces of the quilt in progress. I had had no idea what she would say, but it was perfect – that one sentence seemed to sum up our lives together. I held her hand in mine.  “I’ll work on it, and if i don’t finish it i’ll pass it to Emma”. She closed her eyes and smiled happily, lightly squeezing my hand. “I’d like that” she whispered.

“If I could do over one thing, i’d go back so we had these conversations a long time ago” I whispered back.