Fixated on a Topic

Mom sent me the following update after our conversation.  I am sharing it because it is an interesting illustration of the inner workings of Lyn's mind.

"After we hung up she wanted to know if I still had the wedding invitation (of a dear family friend).  Of course.  It is in the calendar and so I handed it to her.  Had you seen her looking at it you would swear that she was actually reading it.  

She looked at it for about 2 minutes, never blinked and turned it over.  "Strange.  There isn't anything on the back."  I explained that everyone likes something a little different and this one was lovely and unique.  "Now, is it at that Church we drove by last week?"  I said it was since I wanted her to see it and know how easy it is to get to.   I could see her mind turning things over and knew where the conversation would go.  I had to stop that quickly. 

Let me back up a bit.  Several weeks ago, in this Church, during Mass there was a horrible event.  A mentally ill man stabbed several people because his voices told him the choir director was evil.  Thank goodness there were off duty police and firemen there.  He was subdued by them as well as other parishioners.  Everyone survived and this man is in medical custody.  When it was on the news, I immediately knew this was where we would be going for the wedding.  I made a great effort not to say anything about us going to this Church and would try to distract her during the story or even change channels.  Now, several months have passed, the Church has been re-dedicated by the Archbishop and life goes on.  

Out of the blue, as we drove by the Church a few days ago, she said "That is where that man hurt people."  Our neighbor was with us and didn't know what Lyn was talking about.  I said "Yes, but he's in custody and everyone is ok."  "Did they get things cleaned up?"  I assured her it was perfect again.  Lots of people attend there and that I was anxious to go to the wedding.  I began talking about how pretty weddings are, how special the bride is to us and how much we'll enjoy it because you all will be here as well.  I tried to talk about how we were taking the kids to dinner that evening since we aren't going to the reception.  She began her Temperance lecture and our poor neighbor is sitting here trying to figure it all out.

But of course, your sister kept coming back to the stabbing.  I had to change my tone of voice, become stern, and tell her we weren't discussing that since it's over and done and everything is ok.  I LOVE my rear-view mirror!  I got The Look.  I'm surprised the mirror hasn't broken by now.  She was sullen all the way home.  Fortunately, as we came into the house Nikka was standing, wagging her tail and so happy to see Lynn.  Her mood changed, I emailed our neighbor with an explanation of it all and took an aspirin for my headache.

The obsession of any subject is what wears me out the most."