I was at my mom’s house, just sitting on the sofa, when I heard some clatter up on the roof — not Father Christmas, not Good ‘Ole Saint Nick, but my sainted 80-year old mother.

She was up there, trying to unroll a bamboo shade covering over the 12 foot by 12-foot glass skylight over her kitchen.

What the heck?

I have a skirt on, my rainbow flip-flops, and the sun is beating down, and I have a fear of heights. I mean, big-time fear.

I have a real phobia/fear. They call it acrophobia ( from the Greek word Akron, meaning “peak” or “summit” and phobos, “fear.”) Yea; I got that. I must have died in a previous life falling from some great height. Those freeway overpasses give me the whim-whams.

Anyway, I know I have to go up there because she is my mom, my determined mom, and 80. So, I kick off my rainbows, put on my Nikes, and head out the front door. Sure enough, there is a ladder right up against the house, going to the roof.

I climb up and do not look down. I find my way over to the skylight and try not to freak out, sing some hymns, be calm.

My mom lives in a wooded fire area, so she put in this metal shingle roof that looks like wood. It is scorching. And I am sure I am looking sweltering by now, in my skirt on the rooftop. I should have had gloves on; it was that hot. I wanted to sit down, but it was too hot. I did help and somehow managed to stay under control and not fall through the glass or see my dear mother fall through.

What is it about this side of the family? I hope it is all about longevity and feelin’ good till the day you drop dead.

I have a news article, dated March 10, 1936, about her granddaddy and her great great-granddaddy.

First, her granddad–

“B.T. Higgs should have taken the day off: He is 78 years old today and has served the BYU for 40 years — but he went on working devotedly just the same.

Perhaps that’s the trouble–devotion. He has done his work so whole heartedly all these years that it has become a habit.

He can’t leave it for long without feeling restless, uneasy. (see, this is my mom too, she can’t leave the skylight, she gets restless, and has to get up there.)

He comes of a long-living family. His grandfather, on his 101st birthday walked seven miles for exercise and did a bit of shingling on the roof of a house to show his agility.”

Ok, shingle the roof at age 101? Walk seven miles at age 101? Who are these people?

My mom, the sainted 80-year old, looking so reserved:

This is where I found her up on the roof, using a pole to unroll a bamboo shade over the glass skylight:

 

I am yelling at her, “what are you doing?” She acts like it is nothing, pole in hand.

 

This is how the house looked when it was first built, back in 1966: The skylight was put in over the space above those bicycles, in about the year 1990.

And here is her Granddaddy–the gent with the mustache: Brigham Thomas Higgs — “Be the man you would be proud to have your son become.”