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| My daughter Kelly on the lookout of the oldest lighthouse in Michigan, Port Huron |
During my annual dental checkup May 12 in
Imlay City, the dentist referred me to a periodontist in Port Huron. An
unsightly white growth had emerged under the gum above my right front tooth and
needed his expert evaluation.
Having chipped my
front left tooth at nine-years old, teenage orthodontics, and every molar in my
mouth crowned, I’m no stranger to pain.
May 31 I drove north
to I-69 to Port Huron where the GPS directed me in circles around downtown
until I called the doctor’s office for directions.
I completed my new
patient papers as a young woman wearing a white tee shirt, short bib-overalls,
and sandals walked in. She signed in and sat before a window.
The sun
highlighted her abundant roll of auburn hair secured on the top of her head. I recalled
the young assistant with a topknot of black hair who works for our family
doctor in Romeo, and couldn’t restrain my inquisitive nature. “Pardon me.”
“Yes?”
“May I ask how you
perfectly roll your hair on top of your head?”
She kicked her
long, slender leg crossed over the other and smiled. “Oh, I’ve worn it like
this so long I don’t think about it. My son loves to play with it. He calls it
Slinky, like the boys did in high school, because of the way my hair separates
and moves when I turn my head.”
“You have a son?”
I asked incredulous.
“Yes. He’s two
years old and the light of my life.”
I remembered that
feeling with my firstborn. Second. Third.
The receptionist
called my name. Within half an hour I left the surgical chair in minor discomfort
and holding gauze under my lip. The young woman with the Slinky hair had left
the waiting room.
Weeks later the periodontist
called with good and unusual news. “The pathology examination of the gum tissue
indicates tooth matter. I’ve never seen this before,” he said. “This should not
happen again, but let me know if it does.”
Last Monday,
August 8, I waited in Detroit Metro’s Delta arrivals terminal for my middle, California
daughter. At last, she appeared with her beautiful smile. Orthodontics
straightened her teeth as a teen, yet there’s not one crown in her mouth.
“Kelly, I’ve never
seen your hair so long,” I said, and couldn’t help but touch her thick, wavy
auburn strands.
We stopped at
Ridley’s Bakery Café in Troy for a late lunch.
“Mom, are you
still available for a Port Huron trip tomorrow?”
“Certainly. You
must have your fresh water swim in Lake Huron.”
Kelly laughed when
I told her about meeting the young mother with the Slinky hairdo in the
periodontist office.
Dear Reader, my daughter
didn’t brave the lake’s rowdy waves last Tuesday. Rather, we found several
heart-shaped rocks along the beach for my collection. We visited the Thomas
Edison Museum and climbed the ninety-two steps of Michigan’s oldest lighthouse.
Oh yes, no matter
how old, children remain the light of their mother’s life.
