Flying Angels(3)

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   Will went to Audrey’s high school graduation, just as she had gone to his at Annapolis. He had stood tall and proud and handsome in his uniform, and had taken care of their mother while Audrey went through the ritual of getting her diploma. Her mother wasn’t well that day, and she wasn’t up to lunch. She had nearly fallen twice on their way into the auditorium, and they went home right after the ceremony so their mother could lie down. Audrey said she didn’t mind, but Will felt bad that there was no celebration for her. She hardly had time to say goodbye to her friends before she had to rush off to help her mother. The other girls were going out to lunch with their families, as they had with Will, but Ellen was too frail and unsteady for a restaurant that day. The other girls were kind to her when she left hurriedly, but Audrey knew she was already an outsider, and had been for years, being stuck at home with her mother so much of the time. It was a sacrifice Audrey had made willingly, which Will admired her for.

   Will spoke to her quietly after she took a tray of food up to their mother’s room, and he found her in the kitchen in her frilly white dress, with daisies braided into her hair. She looked innocent and young, and as though she didn’t have a care in the world. Audrey had a way of putting a positive spin on everything. There was nothing mournful about her.

“Are you okay?” he asked her gently, and she nodded with a smile. He couldn’t help noticing how beautiful she was, and he hoped she would have a more exciting life one day. “I’m sorry we didn’t get to take you to lunch,” he said, and genuinely meant it.

“It’s fine, I don’t mind.” She looked unruffled and peaceful. “Mom hasn’t felt well for the past few days. I don’t think her new medicine is working.” They had tried everything available to them, but none of the medications for Parkinson’s really worked for her.

“I worry about you after I leave,” Will said softly. He wanted her to have a life, but their mother was so ill.

“We’ll be fine,” she reassured him. They had already arranged for a nurse to check on her mother twice a day after Audrey started nursing school. Their father had carefully set aside savings for them for years, and they had his pension, so they had enough for all their needs, a nice home, and for Audrey’s school. “I’m going to miss you, but you can’t sit here for the rest of your life,” Audrey said to him fairly, and they both knew it was true. The days of being all together and having Will near at hand were over. He was a grown-up now, soon to be a navy pilot. That sounded very grown up to her, and to Will. Their father had hoped Will would be the captain of a ship one day, and that his boyhood passion for airplanes would fade. But planes were where Will’s heart was, and he intended to live his dream to the fullest. And both his mother and sister wanted him to.

   He also knew that eventually taking care of their mother would become too much for Audrey to manage on her own, but that time hadn’t come yet, and he hoped it wouldn’t for a long time, for all their sakes. It saddened him profoundly to see how his mother’s health had degenerated, and how much more hampered she was every year. He thought it noble of Audrey to go to nursing school so she could care for Ellen more efficiently, but it was so typical of Audrey. She was always doing for others and willing to sacrifice herself for them. She had given up her youth to do so, and never complained. To Audrey, the glass was always half full, and she met every challenge with love and enthusiasm, which filled Will with admiration for her, and gratitude.



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Two weeks after Audrey’s graduation, Will left for Florida to begin basic training. He had no time to call them regularly, so communication from him was sporadic, but he sounded ecstatic, almost euphoric, whenever they did hear from him. He loved what he was doing, and everything he was learning about flying planes. His dream had come true.

   Ellen tried to encourage Audrey to spend time with her old school friends in July and August, to catch up with them, and not lose touch entirely, but many of them were traveling with their families, or had gone to their summer homes, and wouldn’t be back until after Labor Day. A few had gotten married right after graduation. And she planned to call one or two to see them in the fall. In the meantime, she was used to keeping busy on her own, and was good at it, with her books and errands for her mother.

Audrey swam at a country club they belonged to, when she could get her mother to go with her. She even got Ellen into the pool a few times, which made her mother feel better afterwards. Audrey gave her mother long gentle massages, and they even managed to go shopping a few times to get her some things she needed for school. As August ended and September began, Audrey was excited about the adventure ahead of her with nursing school. It wasn’t going to be as dazzling as Will’s, learning to fly fighter planes. He had started with an N3N Canary, a “Yellow Peril,” as he called it. It was a biplane built by the navy, and he had graduated to more sophisticated planes by the end of the summer. The navy’s goal was to “train superb pilots.”

But Audrey was excited by what lay ahead for her too. It wasn’t just a training course to learn how to care for her mother. She would be a real nurse, if she chose to be, and was looking forward to the people she would meet in the process. This would no longer be just a bunch of silly kids in high school. These would be serious young women with career goals.