My parents were 43 when I was born. So, it didn't take too long into my life before they were dozing in their chairs, falling asleep when I was talking to them, and going to bed early. My dad used to snooze a lot while he was reading the paper in his big chair in the dining room of our house in Rawlins. My mother would fall asleep in the car as soon as it started to move.
Truthfully, it was kind of irritating. Especially when we would go up to Rawlins for a visit when the kids were little. I would be excited to be with my mom and talk with her and ask her about patterns and material or some culinary thing or just....talk. And, I would be talking at her because her eyes would be glazed and drooping. Soon she would say she had to go to bed because she was tired.
Then after Grandpa and Grandma Huggins died, I moved into a different part of my own life. By the time we had finished living away from Arvada, though I had always been somewhat of an early riser and could still burn the candle at both ends, I suddenly found myself rising even earlier as I first took Harold and Brice to early morning Seminary, and then began teaching Seminary. My eyes commenced to close as soon as I sat down--anywhere!
When I went to Book Club every month--and you KNOW how much I enjoyed that--I usually slept through the middle part of the discussion, waking just in time for the treats. The B.R.O.A.D.S. finally just gave me a blanket at the beginning of our monthly meeting and let me sleep.
The Denver Temple had opened by that time so I often went when a group of sisters from the ward would drive down together. One time on the way home Sue Schilling told me she wasn't sure what she was supposed to do for me during the session that day. We were sitting on the front row, and as I fell asleep I kept leaning farther and farther forward until I nearly fell out of the seat. She wondered, should she wake me? Should she put her arm out and catch my fall? Should she ignore me and see what would happen?
Harold would sometimes call me from BYU at midnight because life was hopping there, and during the conversation he would often say, "Mom, Mom! You're fading!" Indeed I was.
I would close the blinds in my office at Data National during my lunch hour so I could take a little nap. One time one of the other workers went to Janean Call who was our HR person and told her she thought I was dead. Janean asked her why she thought that. Well, I was sitting in my desk chair with my head back and my eyes closed and mouth open. Janean just told her, "Gwennie, it's called TIRED!"
I would fall asleep at our evening meetings at Super PC Memory, but Rick Schaefer always cut me some slack because he knew I got up every morning at 3:40 a.m. and went on a walk before I had a morning devotional, got ready for work and took my kids to Seminary prior to sitting at my desk and dialing that phone at precisely 7:30 a.m. He overlooked stuff like that for anybody who made an effort to exercise.
When I traveled for business, I would be sound asleep long before the door to the aircraft closed and the safety demo was on tap. In fact, the B.R.O.A.D.S. were worried for me to start working for United knowing how my eyes closed so easily once I sat down.
Once I went to work at United I learned how to keep awake on the jump seat, but in the gate room--that was a different story. One day a young woman who was on our base crew asked me why every time I sat down, I would go to sleep. I told her I had been tired for years.
I used to fall asleep while writing in my journal. Still do. Even texting or emailing I fall asleep and sometimes accidentally click a key on my phone, which manages to erase the whole message forcing me to begin anew. That becomes a chore the second time around.
As soon as the car begins to move and I am the passenger, I fall asleep. I have become my mother. Louis has just gotten into the habit of saying, "Why don't you just put the seat back and make yourself comfortable."
Today when we got home from Church just after 11 a.m., I ate a quick sandwich and hurried up to the computer. Pristine hours stretched before me, and I envisioned I would get so much accomplished on the projects I wanted to complete.
My scripture study was first, but I kept falling asleep while I was writing in my Come Follow Me journal--the pen making its way across the page in a squiggle. At least I wasn't writing on the computer like I was not too long ago and woke up several minutes later with a broken neck to see 12 PAGES of lower case "d" on the document I was writing! It is hard to keep my eyes open whenever, wherever. Today was no exception.
I had no idea when I used to wonder why my parents couldn't keep their eyes open all the time that the same thing would happen to me. I just didn't understand then how life has a way of wearing a person down physically, mentally, and emotionally as the years go by. Since a real nap is just not in the cards most of the time, I'm guessing a body "takes five" when it can. That's what mine does. I surmise the alternative is...
Don't get old !!!
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