Gloomy Days

It was pretty gloomy all day today. Mary doesn't like that at all. It seems to really get her down. I must be crazy because I love them. Mary always says, and I repeat verbatim, "Well, it's going to be a gray and gloomy day today." Sometimes I tease her by saying this (or other things that she's always saying, her phrases, so to say, like, "That's odd." or, "How 'bout that."). I honestly don't think she knows I'm teasing her. I don't think she's ever noticed that she's the only one who says these phrases, or that she repeats them quite often. Does everyone have those little phrases that only they say?

I recently noticed that she says Aunt Angie's name in a particular way. She almost always says, "Angela." Now when I talk to Angie, I imitate Mary. It cracks us up, but I don't think Mary catches it. Is this mean of me? Am I making fun of her? "Mocking her," as she'd say? I've also taken to repeating her when she says a word in her own particular fashion (like "eggs" which sounds more like "aigs"). Maybe I'm just slowly losing it... But you know what? When I say these phrases to Mary, I'm also sort of bonding with her. I'm making conversation, too.

I noticed pretty quickly four years ago when I moved in that I tended to use a different accent and use different words when I spoke to Mary. I don't mean this to sound as terrible as it's going to, but I wanted her to understand me. She told Mom once before I moved in that she was afraid we wouldn't get along. She's only had an eighth grade education and I'd gotten a Masters and lived in Europe. I poo-pooed the notion that we'd be incompatible, but I must admit that I was a bit taken aback when I got here and there were no bookshelves in the house. And it was rather hard for me at first to have a TV on every night for several hours. And I quit being a vegetarian. And I started drinking coffee after dinner. And I became very picky about having a clean (pico-bello, as the Germans would say) kitchen. I guess she's had much more influence on me than I've had on her. And you know something else? When I repeat or mimic her or try to second guess what she's going to say, I'm also trying to ingrain her in my memory. Trying to catch the essence of who she is because someday she won't be there anymore.