Short Story: Sweet Lullaby Memories

"So, what are we watching?" asked one of Kari's friends.

"It's an old movie - 'Beaches'?" she replied. "It was my mother's all-time favorite movie. Made her cry every time."

"Do you have any tissues, then?" someone asked.

"So, what's with the old movies? And Bette Midler?" asked someone else.

"It's for my film class term paper," Kari replied. "I'm doing a study on Bette Midler. Look, my mother loved Bette Midler and watched every film she was in until she died. I thought it would be fun to watch these movies that she liked so much and get credit for it in class."

"I hope there's some comedies!" someone piped up. "Or some really good margaritas!"

Kari just shook her head. Her friends couldn't possibly understand what this meant to her. In watching all of these old films, Kari felt she had become closer to her mom, understood her somehow. She began to understand what touched her and what made her laugh. It helped her understand that she and her mom still shared a lot in common.

She grabbed the remote and tucked herself into a corner of her bed. One look around the room of her friends and they were as ready as they were going to be to watch the movie. Someone turned off the lights and Kari hit play.

Instantly, Kari felt a twinge of sorrow and kindred spirits with the character, Hillary. Her mom had died when she was young. Kari was only three when her mother died and she had but scant memories of her. Her father rarely spoke of her mom and she had few pictures of her. The only way she knew much about her mother, including her love of Bette Midler, was from her grandmother. In fact, her grandmother had found some old diaries and journals of her mom's and Kari had been reading through them off and on throughout college. Now in her junior year, Kari found herself yearning to be close to her mom in a way she had never yearned before.

Suddenly, Kari shouted, "Stop the movie!"

"Kari, what's wrong?" someone asked. Someone else reached for the remote that was by Kari and paused the movie. Someone else turned on the lights.

"That's the song!" Kari's friends just stared at her. "It's my mother's lullaby." Kari sobbed. In between sobs she tried to explain. "My mom always sung this song to me to get me to sleep. There's a variety of versions of it and they're OK. But this is it. This is the song!"

"Kari," one of her friends said gently as they handed her tissues. "How can you be sure? Were you even born when this movie came out?"

"Look, I know this sounds weird but I remember my mother playing this song to me. It's one of my first and only memories of her," Kari said. "I was her baby."

After a while, Kari dried her eyes and collected herself. They continued to watch the movie. By the end, all of them were bawling for different reasons. After the movie was over, her friends quickly scanned the stack of borrowed videos from the library to see if they could find a comedy. They agreed they needed a good laugh before trying to go to bed.

Later that night as Kari tried to fall asleep, she kept thinking about the song. She couldn't get Bette Midler singing "Baby Mine" out of her head. She closed her eyes and tried to remember her mother. And then she whispered as she drifted off to sleep, "I've needed you so much lately - to comfort me. Thank you for this gift tonight. I love you, mom."