A bit of Confabulation

I was helping Mom change into a new shirt after her breakfast a few weeks ago (Pancakes and strawberries can make quite a stain), when I noticed a spot on her right shoulder that I had never noticed before. I made an appointment with the dermatologist, and she reluctantly decided to remove some tissue for biopsy.  Surprisingly, the biopsy showed melanoma in situ (in other words, early melanoma which has not spread.) She was scheduled for surgery, and the site was removed. For two weeks, a visiting nurse came to change the dressing, and then the stitches were removed.
  Having a visiting nurse is not something that she minds. At all.  She loves visitors, and enjoys sharing stories.  Of course, sometimes these stories get a little convoluted. Sometimes, they are just plain wrong. So, I wasn't too surprised when the nurse asked me outside of Mom's earshot, "Um, this is kind of personal, but.. Did your sister die recently?"  Uh, no; all present and accounted for.  "Your Mom told me that her daughter Mary died at a young age. But then later in the visit, she looked at another family photo and said, "Wait, there's Mary. She's still alive, and lives down the street, I think."  Well, she's healthy.  But Virginia is a bit of a distance from Massachusetts.
   She has also been killing off my father at an earlier and earlier age.  Dad died 12 years ago, 2 days before his 70th birthday.  She has been informing everyone that he died at age 43.  Hmmm...
    But like most of her mixed up stories, there is some truth to them.  Dad had a sister Mary Claire, who died when she was 13, and her passing haunted my father and his parents. She was probably thinking of her when she said that her daughter Mary was gone.  And as for Dad, they were married for 45 years, a number close to 43-- I think that is why  she uses that number as his lifespan. 
  Stitches are out, but the doc says that she needs a little more work-- the melanoma extended beyond the margins that he removed (it is still "in situ". There is just a few more cells to remove...) We will do that in July. And Mom will once again be able to have a visiting nurse to talk with.  I'm looking forward to more fractured family history lessons!