“I miss her waving goodbye.”
Maria Rivas (above right) sat down with Caroline Dezan (above left), a social worker at Hinds Hospice, to record this Legacy interview about caring for her mother, Julia Medina, during the last six years of Julia’s life.
Listen to an excerpt of Maria and Caroline’s conversation:
Click here to download a PDF transcript of this conversation.
Recorded in April 2014, Maria recalls Julia’s strength and remembers a time she got in trouble in junior high school for chewing gum, and how her mother dealt with the vice principal, “The guy put his fingers in his ears ‘cause he didn’t want to listen to my mom. And my mom just reached across that desk, I remember, and she pulled his hands out and she goes, ‘You’re gonna listen to me.'”
Maria also talked about the rewards of caring for her mother later in life, “As she got older, you know, she couldn’t move her body as much. So after I’d bathe her, I put the lotion on her and she would tell me, ‘Oh, that feels so good…it’s good.’”
Remembering the things she misses most about her mom, Maria discussed seeing Julia wave goodbye from their porch when she would leave. Before Julia died, Maria was able to capture a photograph of that moment and she brought the picture with her to her StoryCorps Legacy interview, “I’m so, so happy I took this picture, ‘cause before I leave for class, or before I go to work, I always open the door back up and I go, ‘Bye, Mom!’”
Click here to listen to more stories from Hinds Hospice.
Click here to learn more about StoryCorps Legacy.