All There Is by Dave Isay

Author:Dave Isay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group, USA
Published: 2012-01-24T16:00:00+00:00

LISA THOMAS, 41, talks with her mother-in-law, ANN JAMISON, 62

Lisa Thomas: The first time that I remember seeing Mark, I was in a bar. I looked across the table, and I thought, Wow, who is that? Mark had a very ethereal quality. I always said he looked like a fairy or an elf of some sort, because he had these big, wide cheekbones and these eyes that slanted up.

So I went to my friend Beth, and I asked, “Who is that guy sitting at the end of the table in the fringe leather jacket?” And Beth said, “That’s Mark Jamison.” And I went, “Oops, never mind,” because I knew he was married.

When Mark got a divorce we became really good friends. We started hanging out, and he invited me over to show me how he made neon. When I started dating him I told him, “Don’t tell anybody we’re dating, because you just got divorced. I don’t want people thinking, Oh, this is just a rebound relationship, and it’s not going to last.” Unbeknownst to me, he blabbed his mouth to everybody.

We didn’t date very long—only a couple months—but it was an intense relationship. In a matter of weeks we began talking about children, and we were trying to get pregnant.

Ann Jamison: He told us about you. I think the words were, “Dad, you’re going to love her. She has great legs.” [Laughs.] But we hadn’t met. There just wasn’t the time.

Lisa: There wasn’t. Everything happened so suddenly. I remember Beth calling me, “There’s been an accident and Mark’s hit his head.” I got in the car and just drove. I walked into the hospital room, and you didn’t know me, but I remember you grabbed me and said, “You made him so happy.” Well, I misunderstood you. I thought you said, “You’ll be so happy.” And I was, like, Okay, okay. There’s hope. And then I looked up at the chaplain, and the look on his face indicated that I did not hear you right. I said, “What? What?” And you said, “He never knew what hit him.”

I had never experienced an implosion of such power. And you were so supportive. I remember thinking, How can she be so strong?

The funeral was horrible. I just remember being in a haze.

Ann: When we left the cemetery, I looked over to find you, and you were on the ground. Your clothes were spread out; it looked like you’d melted. It was awful. You still had the high intensity of newfound love and the future ahead. As his mother, at least I had had all the past.

Lisa: When I first went into Mark’s apartment the night after he died, I looked around at the dishes we had eaten on and the wineglasses that we’d drank out of—everything was still there. And I remember not being able to leave. He loved music, and I went over to the CD player and pushed Play, because I wanted to know what he was listening to the night before.

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