Bob CollinsScott Simon, host of Weekend Edition Saturday on NPR, is a master essayist and storyteller. He’s telling a compelling story now on Twitter: the imminent death of his mother.
I see dawn coming in sky and want to hold it back to keep my mother from what's ahead–to keep my mother, period.
— Scott Simon (@nprscottsimon) July 28, 2013
He started a couple of weeks ago when he got a phone call from his mother while on vacation. “I’m surrounded by handsome men,” she said. She was at the hospital awaiting emergency surgery for an undisclosed illness. He was on vacation and headed for the hospital.
Apparently, he’s been sleeping on the floor of a Chicago hospital, on an air mattress he had to buy.
Tried to buy coffee for family w/ a mother in ICU too. Barista overheard, refused my card. "Your money's no good here."
— Scott Simon (@nprscottsimon) July 27, 2013
These last few days, things turned darker.
I just realized: she once had to let me go into the big wide world. Now I have to let her go the same way.
— Scott Simon (@nprscottsimon) July 28, 2013
But Simon kept telling the story, noting that he tells his mother millions of people on Twitter love her.
I love holding my mother's hand. Haven't held it like this since I was 9. Why did I stop? I thought it unmanly? What crap.
— Scott Simon (@nprscottsimon) July 29, 2013
His mother dispenses advice, like “pay attention to people in their 80s. They’ve been staring at death for more than a decade and know what’s vital.”
Early this morning, he tweets that he can only hold his mother.
In middle of nights like this, my knees shake as if there's an earthquake. I hold my mother's arm for strength–still.
— Scott Simon (@nprscottsimon) July 29, 2013
Around breakfast today, he acknowledges her death could come at any moment. A nurse says hearing is usually the first to go. So he sings to her.
When she asked for my help last night, we locked eyes. She calmed down. A look of love that surpasses understanding.
— Scott Simon (@nprscottsimon) July 29, 2013
Twitter has never brought us closer.
I know end might be near as this is only day of my adulthood I've seen my mother and she hasn't asked, "Why that shirt?"
— Scott Simon (@nprscottsimon) July 29, 2013
Scott Simon’s mother, Patricia Lyons Simon Newman Gilband, appeared on his show once — November 22, 2008 — when she told him her story.
“It’s been a beautiful journey knowing you,” she said.
He started crying and said, “I love you.”
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Audio not found
(h/t: Larry Hosch)
update 7:56 pm His mother died this evening.
