REDISTRIBUTED LOVE

REDISTRIBUTED LOVE

I care. I care more, if not as much as the next person. But, daily news in one form or another gives all of us one terrible catastrophic event after another. It is always horrific regardless if it is social, environmental, political, or economic. The fact is we forget from day to day until it becomes clearly, close, and personal.

It was not apparent how greatly society had changed the past few years until my mother died. However, yesterday was a shocking reality, Mom died at 5;47 AM while I was visiting her at home on her birthday.

I had called 911 because I didn't know what to do. The helpful voice on 911 directed me to one of the new government organizations, the M.N.O.R; the local Morticians National Office of Redistribution. Their Agent and another agent from the D.H.E; Department of Health and Environment were here, in mothers home, within an hour. It was clear immediately their power and authority was all-encompassing.

After the agents determinded Mom was dead one of them opened their briefcase and handed me copies of her IRS inventories from two years ago. I knew what they were as everyone had been required to submit complete inventories of their personal wealth after the reforming of the Emergency Government Act. Catastrophes’ change everything we take for granted with perhaps, the exception of our souls.

What I didn’t know was, what was left of the faculty infrastructure of Harvard University, Stanford University, the NIAID. and MIT intelligentsia all had determined and confirmed conclusively that collection, embalming, and cremations of human bodies were dangerous to our living health and more so to the environment.

2020 had neen a year of national change toward a more equitable nation. Our environment had turned on us two and a half years ago in cataclysmic ways. The air, water, glaciers, and deserts had all changed, what seemed suddenly and dramatically. They was proven the tectonic plates had shifted and silicon dust had infiltrated the air and water contributing to the death of millions of people worldwide .

In swift fashion our elected government set up agencies to respond. They were immediately formed with near Carte Blanche authority and powers to take charge of civil society and to confiscate all possessions of the deceased, This action then allowed for them to redistribute to the living who were in need or deemed to be.

Thus, the copies of mom’s new completed personal inventories were presented to me and signed for before mom's body was allowed to be moved by an agency technician.

I was allowed by law to keep a minimum of her money, 10%, and one to two pieces of her Jewelry. All insurance policies were paid to the government and Real properties were deeded to the government. The M.N.O.R. and the D.H.E. had completed their search and the comparing of her first IRS inventory to the current one. I felt lost and depressed.

I had thought little or nothing of the closing of the cemeteries and columbariums , I was living. Now, our dead bodies were examined by both agencies and they determined if any body parts were viable replacements for those in our society that needed them or they were sent to the Medical and Mortician schools. It was serious economic business and had to be completed before relatives could go back to their normal lives without government presence. We were allowed to have Showings of our deceased as long as it was completed in two days.

I was distraught and began to think Mom had had enough of living, especially with all the new National regulations. She had lived ninety years and through many different changes from no taxes, to high taxes, peace to world wars, marriages to marriages lost, new children born to lost children never found, and of course small federal government to monolithic government.

Now, the D.H.E. had prohibited citizens from burying their loved ones or relatives. I was tasked with approving my mother’s final disposition through the two agencies.

I had several years previously had a discussion with mom on what clothes, Color mostly, she wanted to be shown and buried in. Now it would just be for the Showing. It would be quick and short. The M.N.O.R prior to leaving had explained the procedure to me. There would be a Showing and then immediate governed cremation, unless the body was allocated to a Medical school, Facility, or Mortician school. I was directed to sign the release and understanding forms and then they left.

I was all alone now. My mother had died. I was the Patriarch I reasoned, sort of. I sat in her bedroom looking at her stuff, her personal belongings. They were strew all over after the agency inventory. Then I saw her jewelry box on her vanity top. Remembering, under the authority and law of the two agencies I was allowed to keep one or two pieces of her jewelry. All other possessions were to be managed by the M.N.O.R for redistribution by M.N.O.R. I looked closely and saw in the bottom corner of her jewelry box a glint, a shining. It was the gold heart-shaped locket I had given mom fifty years ago. I pushed aside the necklaces, the rings, and broaches and gently picked up the heart. It still had the 14KT gold chain attached and dangling down. I cradled it in my palm and rubbed my thumb on it as if doing so would somehow bring that moment back to me. I continued to rub it reflectively and lovingly, recalling her joy in opening the red wrapped package and box. I could see her in my mind's eye when she first saw the Heart Shaped Locket, and her tears of happiness, especially when she read the inscription and saw my picture inside. Tears of sadness swelled and fell down my cheeks remembering. Then with a quick wipe and a sigh, the good memories raced back to me. I opened the locket and read;

ALWAYS KNOW

MY LOVE FOR YOU IS

ALWAYS NEAR YOUR HEART

My picture was still there, a twenty-year-old young man with twinkling eyes and a brave smile showing my best side to mom. She always worried about me, I was a handful. So soon, I missed her terribly. I missed her consistent and constant love of me, her reassurances that all would be fine when I needed it most. She was an incredible person and mother not just to me, but to everyone that knew her. She was generous with her love for people, slightly more so for children. Mom never denied a friend or relative a few dollars to get by on until better times found them. Her encouragement to me in my turbulent years was matched by her encouragements to all she believed needed it. She was rock solid and always uplifting.

She had suffered through my late-blooming years wanting so to be a Grandmother and Mother-in-Law. I didn’t marry until I was thirty-five. Then, she became a happy grandmother of two irascible boys two years apart in age, and she spoiled them every opportunity she had.

Mother wanted to live long and see Great, Grandchildren. She did live to see her first great-granddaughter; Carsyn Elizabeth. I recall her holding Carsyn the very first time. I swear there was an aura around them both that day.

Mothers and Grandmothers are essential in our beginnings of life. Without the love they can bestowed upon us, we can founder for sure. My remembering her happiness that day will not leave my heart and soul while I live. It was clear to me, I would remove my picture and replace it with Mom's and pass the golden Heart Shaped locket to Carsyn Elizabeth, near to my heart.