I knew it was going to happen. At some point in time, I’d be too quick to punch the wrong button on the answering machine, and accidentally delete one or both of the two messages left by my mama a few months ago. Earlier this morning we had to have our well worked on, and that required turning off the breaker. When I walked past my answering machine, I saw the red light flashing and when I pushed “Play,” the machine announced “Time and Date Must Be Set.”

The messages started playing and my too quick finger punched the “Delete” button, rather than the “Stop” button. And I immediately realized what I’d done.

I haven’t listened to the messages that often, because it makes me sad and miss her so much when I hear her say “I love you” at the end. Fortunately, I still have a message and I’m about to record it with the “voice memo” feature on my phone. I’ll save it to my computer, and then to a flash drive. It may seem weird, but the message is so perfectly her and I don’t want to lose it, too. Calling to see if I’d heard from my sister (who was in New York at the time) and wrapping it up by saying “I love you.”

I used to get frustrated because she would call me to see if I knew what was going on with Angie. I would say, “Mama, just call Angie!” and she would tell me she didn’t want to disturb her if she was working or sleeping or otherwise busy.

I would love to hear her ask me what is going on with my sister today.