Pre-emptive

We are on our way to the hospital ER to meet my sister and my mom. For her (my mom's not my sister's) 93rd birthday my sister took her (my mom and herself actually) to the mountains. Where of course my mom got sick in the hotel becasue as she taught us , it pays to be good but it doesn't pay much. And now there is some unexplained bleeding so we'll all rendezvous at the ER. I was feeling distraught and I told the next to eldest as he prepared to take the little one (naturally no school today) and I prepared to wait for his dad (naturally one car in the shop and a business trip today) that we might "lose Grandma one day' (or something silly) and he said, "I've always thought pre-emptive suffereing was a poor tactical choice." I love my sons -and clearly he has come to this conclusion from years of seeing me try to pre-empt all possible catastrophes. This is an N. poeticus. My mother taught me it's beauty and it's name. She has always been a good tactician.