Mortality

I am a daughter of a single mother. And the single mother of a single daughter. And today I had an interesting brush with mortality.
My mother and I are on a trip to Ireland. We have been touring the country for the past week. This morning she was not feeling well, but we pushed on our long 3 hour drive to Newgrange- the site of a 5000 year old burial mound. And just as the tour guide was telling us about the site- my mother sat down and told me she was going to faint. In time it took me to turn around and ask for help my mother lost consciousness and fell to the ground. She was unconscious for about 10 seconds - which may as well have been 10 minutes. The minutes that followed were excrutiating. We were lucky enough to have no less than 3 doctors in the crowd who came to help, an ambulance was called and within about a half an hour my mother was looking better. Although as I write this she is in our room in Dublin in a cold sweat, claiming a bug or food poisoning. Tomorrow may require a full on hospital visit.
I feel helpless. And for the first time I glimpsed my mother's mortality. And I didn't like it at all. She looked up at me, pale , frightened, disoriented and sick. And I felt alone. When I grew up I knew that my mom and I could take on the world. What will happen when she isnt there to take it on with me?
And then I thought About my own mortality, and my daughter. One day she will have to look into my eyes and she too will feel that loneliness that comes from being the only child of a single mom.
My mom is young, she is healthy, I am pretty sure this is a bug that will pass. But someday it won't be. And today outside the burial mound at Newgrange I took a cold hard look at mortality. I did not like anything I saw.