Rose's Room - October 2026

There’s so much swirling around us these days that makes us frightened and unsure of ourselves and the world in general, that many times we walk around in a fog of worry and stress. Maybe if we stop for just a moment before the day hits us in the face to take a deep breath and ask for patience, we may be able to return a frown and sigh with a smile and nod while stuck at a stop light or grocery store line. I’m going to try and invite all to do so, also.
When my last offspring graduated from high school and joined his siblings by becoming a decent, respectable member of society, I thought my days of apologizing for them were over. I should have known better.
At a recent family get together, the subject turned to previously secret tales of Halloween’s past and I was once again amazed at my darlings’ ability to pull off the most outrageous stunts without my knowledge.
My mouth went agape when my first born poked her sister and giggled, “Remember the man who always cracked the door just enough to shove that bowl of candy through and it was always old leftover Christmas candy? After you slipped the frog in that bowl, he never opened his door on Halloween again.”
Daughter number 2, (widening her eyes in a, “Shut up, Mom is listening,” manner), answered, “I may or may not have been responsible for a TOAD inadvertently landing in a certain bowl, but you can’t deny kidnapping all the potted plants from Mrs. Smith’s yard and placing them in exactly the same position in Mr. Jones yard! Do you realize how hard it was to keep Mom occupied long enough for you to finish?”
Heir number 3 chimed in with, “You think that was hard? I’m the one who had to convince her that you two were mature enough to take the little kids out by yourself the year she was so sick she almost cancelled Trick or Treating!”
Not even noticing my incredulous stare, she continued, “It was a good idea to dress them up in overlapping costumes so we could shed one, then come back and hit the same houses twice, but you should have asked Roy if he LIKED wearing that nightgown so we could have avoided him screaming so loud when we tried to take it off that a police officer stopped to see if we were OK.”
While my darlings lost themselves in convulsive laughter, I looked to Roy for denial. There wasn’t any. Being the baby and the only boy with 4 sisters, wearing a nightgown was a form of self defense.
I have a feeling I will be adding a therapist to my list of people I will be apologizing to. I’m just not sure if it will be Roy’s or mine.