And here I was in a new situation: sitting with my son, browsing through magazines where half-naked men and women advised readers to stay away from drugs and never attempt to repeat their moves at home. Nice motto, I could not argue with that.
I spent the next year or so listening to how great John Cena was and reluctantly nodding my head when told that so and so was now 130 kilos, when I was fighting against chocolate and cookies to lose my extra 10...
Finally, the ultimatum dropped down:
-"I am so happy with my life right now, all I need now for it to be totally great is to see a real WWE match!"
Ha! No kidding! That was all he needed to have a more than wonderful life... As a single Mum, you can imagine that most of my days, I slaved restlessly to make this little boy as happy to live with me as he could be. I tried to replace father, father's friends, father's brothers, in short all the manly companionship a boy could get and admire, and learn from. It was a full time job!
So, I seemed to finally have reached my limits. There was no way I could even contemplate finding out how to take him to a wrestling match. Even if I did, what was I supposed to do there? Squeak every time a punch would be thrown, run over with a wet wipe when one guy's eyebrow would start bleeding, hide my face in my hands and cry after witnessing these giants throwing each other off the ring?
I decided to play it safe:
- "You know what? If I meet a new "Daddy" soon, or if Uncle Pat or Grand-pa one day accept to go with you, then, you can go. All right? Beside, I don't even know if a boy your age can enter such a violent event as a WWE showdown."
That was a cheap shot. I knew most of the kids his age were as passionate as he was about wrestling if not, why would the stars be going on about not copying their moves at home? I also knew that there was no way on earth my father would go to a WWE match, and I also would have bet money on the fact that my brother-in-law never took his own son to any kind of matches... So, where did that leave me?
At some point, I would have to figure out a way.
As my son's 10th birthday neared, I searched the Internet for the closest WWE match in the near future. I found out that they regularly toured Europe, so there would be a chance to see a match. I searched a suitable date and booked two tickets.
Needless to say, my son was over the moon. He claimed to have the best Mum ever.
The hardest was still to come. I had to sit through the match, without whining or screaming or looking horrified so that my son could have the time of his life and of course, so that I would remain the best Mum in the world.
A few weeks before the event, I forced myself to sprout any kind of interest in wrestling. I asked my son questions about the different stars. I figured that if I picked a couple of favorite fighters, we would have a challenge going on him and me, as to whether our favs would show up for the match or not.
On D-Day, I was as excited as he was, probably not for the same reasons. He jumped around and thanked me every minute. I was ecstatic. This was, despite all, turning out to be a fantastic moment for the two of us.
We sat in the audience and when the music started, we both jumped up and cheered as loud as we could. During the several matches, we clapped and called out champions' names, followed the chanting of the crowd. It was wonderful!
At the end of the evening, the last match was going to start and, because I had done my homework, I knew the theme songs of my favorite (Randy Orton), I still was very surprised to hear:
I hear voices in my head
They council me
They understand
They talk to me
My son screamed over the noise: "He is here!" and we watched as RKO, surrounded by show smoke greeted the crowd at the entrance curtain.
This was a great episode of our life and what I would call a success for a single Mum. I pulled that through and even managed to enjoy myself. But the thing I cherish the most was to see the glitter in my son's eyes as he saw that, even though he knew I was coming there just to accompany him, some supreme power brought the champion I had picked to this event. He went on and on about how lucky I was, and never mind all his heroes did not show up, he got to see a couple of them, and... his Mum's favorite came and SHE had a blast!
