I have a message on my phone.

It’s dated August 26, 2024.

This is the last time my mom

 

left a message on my phone

which she started with:

Ah . . . This is your mother.

 

That’s how she used to start

Every. Single. Message.

This message kind of rambles

 

and she’s talking about the fair

and she’s talking about pies—

two things that my mom loved the most.

 

And I’m not going to get

another phone message from her that starts

Ah . . . this is your mother.

 

When we visit in Memory Care,

she might still talk about pies,

she might still ask about the fair,

 

but she’s not going to call.

 

And I’m driving home

from the funeral of a dear cousin

and I’ve spent the last 24 hours

 

with lots of extended family

and I know they know what I mean

when I say that my mother

 

won’t ever leave that message again.

 

Lynn Aprill

—

Lynn Aprill is a retired educator and MFA student at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri. Her work has appeared recently in Copperfield Review Quarterly, Sky Island Journal, Willows Wept Review, among others. Her latest chapbook Aging in Place was published by Water’s Edge Press in April 2025.