Sara "Sally" Hughes
September 26, 1934 - November 20, 2004
By Dave Hughes, her son.....Here are some pictures of ma. Some were taken during our three trips to London (1993, 1994, 1995). And the rest at or near our home in Reston VA. Oh, those red glasses ma almost always wore around her neck - she fell and broke them on her last night at home, 11/16/04.....
Final days. Ma died on 11/20/04, one day shy of the 13th anniversary of my father's death on 11/21/91.....
11/18/04 - I had to rush ma back to the hospital yesterday. Her feet were going blue. On top of her heart, digestive, back, knee, and kidney problems. She got hooked up to a heart monitor in the ER which showed her blood pressure way too low. I then told her to clear her mind and focus on one image - George W. Bush. Instantly, her blood pressure rose. Almost back to normal. God's honest truth. Ah, my ma. A good liberal.....
11/23/04 - Thanks to all the many (!!!) folks who have sent sympathy messages regarding the death of my mother, Sara, on Saturday. Her passing was expected. In fact, nobody, including the doctors, thought she'd live more than a few months after a major heart attack almost five years ago. And, she was able to live the past years at home on her own terms, surrounded by her loved ones. Up until Wednesday, when she simply couldn't walk any longer and was in intense pain - and we had to rush her to the ER. Her decline in the hospital (and a day in the hospice) was blessedly short. Her circulatory system, which had been gradually worsening over the years, just shut down.....
11/29/04 - It's funny how songs link to events in one's life. An oldie reminds you of something in high school. Or an old friend. Well, that's happened to the Bjork-ish tune "Montana" by Venus Hum. We had my ma's burial service the Friday after Thanksgiving at the family plot at Cold Spring Cemetary in Cape May, NJ. A "seafoam" green coffin. Ma loved green and purple, but no purple coffins were available. It was a cold, windy day, with a big beautiful, cloudless sky. After a week of glum, rainy weather. And the hook in "Montana" is "big beautiful sky." Afterward, we gathered at Carney's pub on the beach, which, as luck would have it, is open in the off-season on Fridays and weekends. Again, thanks for the messages and cards about ma's passing. Losing ma is tough, but knowing that I have such a large cyber "family" has been a great comfort.....
I have never known a more unmaterialistic person than my ma. If you would have asked her for anything she would have given it to you. Gladly. And what she did posses was of the kitchy, goofy variety. She loved animals - all varieties. One of her "prized" collections was of those cleap plastic critters that make noises (thanks to two "AA" batteries) if you pass by. She had several frogs, a dinosaur, an owl, and a squirrel. And she loved inflated animals, too, including a 5-foot tall plastic penguin that graced a corner of the living room. She also took pride in her "bird clock," which I bought for her birthday one year. At the top of each hour it broadcast a different bird call. And we can't forget "Turt-Lee," her turtle nightlight, which emitted an orange glow so that she wouldn't fall on the trip from her bed to the bathroom. I left on the nightlight the night after she died, to help her find her way to Heaven. (I am sappy, aren't I).....
Here are two poems ma composed. I read both of them at her graveside ceremony on 11/26/04 - 13 years to the day after we buried my dad, Richard, her one romantic love. This first one is about her mother, who died of breast cancer in her early 30s, when my ma was only a little girl. Ma had a very tough childhood. Her dad died of heart ailments on her 13th birthday (the number 13 again, hmmm). And, naturally, "Sara Ann Hughes" has 13 letters.....
I remember in my early years
Of crying mixed with salty tears.
A little white rose she held in her hand,
As she left this earth for another land.
When the rose dropped
I knew it would never return.
For the hands that held it
Were now white and stern.
On the 4th of July,
A rainy day,
I took the white rose
To the ground where she lay.
And though it is paper -
Forever it grows.
In the heart of my mother,
One little white rose.
This second poem was about one of her two children, either me, her son, or Patricia, her daughter. We're not quite sure.....
A love created out of love,
A heart that beats beneath my own.
God-given gift for us to share
A miracle of flesh and bone.
Forgive us if we fail you,
The world we give you is not fair.
We only promised all our love -
The best we have of tender care.
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