This was a dream. I say again, this was a dream — because it was so horrific I do not want anyone mistaking it for real life.

I dreamed my mother had a stroke. In the dream we were seated in a movie theater, her to my left, and a friend of mine to my right. The previews were on, and I commented to her about one of the actors. Rather than replying in hushed movie-theater tones, she replied to me at full volume a rather nonsensical reply, which had the intonation of a question but was just not right. “Are you alright?” I asked her, and she said another non-sense sentence. I stood up and grabbed for my cell phone in my pocket, fumbled it and it fell into my friend’s lap; he’d have to pick it up because I knew I had to get my mom out of the theater and to an ambulance. I picked her up, putting her arm around my neck, and sort of drag-walked her out into the theater hallway. At this point in the dream I was sort of panicing, and was not sure if I should indeed call an ambulance or not. This uncertaintly was due to my panic clouding my judgement — of course I should call one. But I was not sure if an ambulance arriving at the theater would be the best place or if I should try to get her out to the sidewalk or what. And my phone — I couldn’t call. So I shouted for some people to call 911 but I could not tell if anyone did, so I continued to move her to the sidewalk. I finally lay her down and a person who may have been a doctor (who happened to be at the movies) came over to help but of course he didn’t know what could be wrong; from his perspective it could be a heart attack or a fainting spell, only I had heard her garbled sentences which meant a brain problem, either a stroke or worse.

This dream concerned me enough that I phoned home today rather than the traditional Sunday that I typically do with my parents. But she was out at a conference and wouldn’t be back until Sunday sometime, so, I just have to hope this was not any kind of premonition.