Nostalgia: (Sept, 2005): "The Day My Name Changed"

Thursday, September 01, 2005

The Day My Name Changed; Or, the coffee is ready.

As I have written of previously, during my college years, I lived in St. Paul with my grandmother. My dad had grown up in the vintage four square home on Dayton, similiar to the one I own today. My dad, Tom, was the only son of Michael Woulfe and Alice Barnes Woulfe, his first wife having passed away after giving him 4 sons.

One day, in my Junior year, I arrived home to find an ambulance in front. Shocked, I went inside. There was our friends, Buck and Betty Meyers, as well as a doctor. The doctor told me that Nana had had a slight heart attact and possibly a stroke, but was resting comfortably. Nana was very detrmined NOT to leave home and he had given her some aspirin. He said this was really all the treatment she would get at the hospital in 1967, and that I should just watch her closely and if I needed anything there would be a nurse that would come by in a couple of days.

I had a full course load in those days, as well as worked 20 hours a week, so I wondered how I could function without Nana. That night, as I listend to her breathe, I went over all I knew about health care. Pretty limited. Anyway, the future seemed at the end of each breath. It was a long night.

Then the alarm went off as it always did at 5:30AM. The Steve Cannon radio show on WCCO began. The usual cast of characters, Steve, and his impersonated characters, Ma Linger, Morgan Mondaigne, and Lash Laroo were all there that morn. Steve impersonated all of them. Ma Linger was the 80 year old woman who was always out all night carousing. Nana would talk every morn about Ma Linger. Marveling how she could keep up such a furious pace.

After the alarm went off and the Cannon program began, I heard the shoes, Nana's loud black shoes. Something was different though. They were louder. And after thinking about it, I realized that she had not tied them.

Then, I heard her voice. Just like always.

"The coffee is ready, Tom. ....

In a heartbeat, I made the adjustment. "OK, Nana, I am almost ready. I will be there in a second. From that day on, I was "Tom" and that was cool. I never had the heart to tell her the truth about Ma Linger.

Posted by Evansville Observer at 6:43 PM