Prophetic?

Mother was always threatening apoplexy. Although I only had a vague notion of what that is, I was certain that it was serious, painful, and that whatever it was that I was doing that caused her to threaten it, I had better stop doing it.

It was an effective behavioral control device in “Freda’s Rules For Raising Children.”

I lived through the threats and never actually saw her commit apoplexy.
Or maybe I did, but I didn’t know that’s what she was doing.

As I am thinking about it and writing about it, and because I had never actually looked up the exact definition, I just Googled it:
ap·o·plex·y
apəˌpleksē/noun dated noun: apoplexy; plural noun: apoplexies
1 unconsciousness or incapacity resulting from a cerebral hemorrhage or stroke.
2 informal: 
incapacity or speechlessness caused by extreme anger: “this drives the social engineers of government into apoplexy”

While the first definition doesn’t make much sense - why would Freda want a stroke? – the second one was the perfect clarification. This would be very “Freda” of her to do.

My thinking about all this at this time has come about because earlier this morning I was “not watching” a movie (TV is turned on to TCM but I am otherwise engaged and not really involved in the film). This one was from 1938 with Rosalind Russell (a favorite, along with Myrna Loy), Olivia de Havilland and Errol Flynn in which “apoplexy” was used in a sentence: “You’d better scoop that story, or the chief will have apoplexy.”

I gather that apoplexy was a big deal in the late ‘30’s. Which is when Freda probably caught onto it and just kept it in her repertoire in case she ever needed it to threaten her as yet unborn children.

OMG: in re-reading the definition that I just Googled, I realize that in the end, as a result of bacterial meningitis, the last six years of Mother’s life were spent in a state of “unconsciousness, incapacity and speechlessness.”

Oh Mommy, darling, I am so sorry: you actually DID become apoplexic!!!
Oh, Mom, I wish you had threatened something else. This was really much worse than I think you ever intended. I wish you had threatened something like “I’ll give you the silent treatment for five minutes”. We might have all fared so much better.

Please, Mother, rest in peace. Please at least do that, Mom. Rest in peace.