Mother knows best

With Mother's Day on May 8, I thought I'd share a rather humorous and very true anecdote that exemplifies the amount of love a mother has for her children.

I spoke with my mother via text message on Saturday around 10 a.m. On Sundays, my mother usually calls around 1 p.m. or so to catch up. On this Sunday, however, I decided to go to Riverton to go shopping for a few household items that I needed. Plus, I always enjoy driving through Wind River Canyon, and this was the first time I got to do so while it was raining.

So, I drive to Riverton, eat lunch at Sol de Mexico and do my shopping. When I arrived home at around 6 p.m., there was a police officer in my driveway.

I got out of my car and she got out of hers. I knew then that she was waiting on me.

She said, "I'm looking for you."

I asked, "What did I do?" all the while racking my brain trying to remember what I could have done to elicit police waiting for me at my apartment.

I then find out that my mother had reported me missing because when she called my phone it said, "The number you are trying to reach is not reachable."

For whatever reason, I have zero phone service in Wind River Canyon or Riverton. And I missed our weekly regularly scheduled phone call.

My mother - who lives in Crossett, Ark. - seems to have freaked out because of this. So, she called the newspaper and me several times before she called the police.

The officer waiting at my apartment explained that it was simply a welfare check. At approximately this time, all of the text messages, Facebook messages and missed phone calls began showing up on my phone.

My mother, though checking my Facebook page and seeing that I posted late Saturday evening, assumed the worst, I'm guessing. It probably didn't help that my friend Sharky had been trying to contact me for a couple of weeks and I hadn't answered because it was always a time when I was busy or didn't feel like talking. He called my mother Sunday at the same time she couldn't contact me after receiving that hauntingly mysterious, "The number you are trying to reach is not reachable" message for the first time. I'm sure that did not help matters. It all comes down to bad timing, I think.

The point though, is that my mother - most mothers - care for their children exponentially and sometimes crazily. Perhaps, my mother let her emotions get the best of her over the weekend. And maybe I was a little bit shocked and found the whole thing a tiny bit insane, but I know it came from a good place. She knows I'm an adventurous soul with a strong wanderlust, so it is possible I would go hiking or something and disappear. And being that I'm still new to the area, how would anyone know?

Maybe one day when my daughter grows up and moves across the country, I, too, will make a spontaneous, hysterical phone call to the local police when she misses our scheduled phone call.

What is love if it isn't crazy?