“Do you have all your bits?”

My mom’s infamous saying- "Do you have all your bits?"

To the uninformed, this may seem like an odd question, but to me “bits” is a quick and dirty way to say ‘diabetes related paraphernalia including meters, strips, insulin pens (until I got the pump) and some form of glucose to treat lows’.

Every morning as I left for school, when I went out at night, on the weekends, for sleepovers, to meet friends, to practice, whether she was coming or not... “Chloe, do you have all your bits?”
Even after I had left for university, when I came home for the holidays and was heading out...“Chloe, do you have all your bits?”
The sound of those six words grated on me. I would wait, knowing it was coming, until I could roll my eyes and mouth the words with a snarky expression plastered on my face.
“What do you think I do when you’re not around Mom?” I would retort.

I soon realized what happened when she wasn’t around... the words, her words, her voice played in my head. She doesn’t need to say it anymore.

These days, as I walk towards a door, a simple chemical reaction occurs in my brain.
“Chloe, do you have all your bits?” it says.