Bloodstains

There was a bloodstain on my mother's pillow the one she had when I was a kid in my parents' house the understuffed blue and white striped one. It was faded and the blood had turned brownish red. I remember seeing it and wondering how it got there. Did my mother's mouth bleed? Or her nose? Did she cry blood? I never asked her about it and until today it sat in my head, this thing that exists without acknowledgement a piece of me and it makes me realize how much of my existence has faded away like blood slowly oxidizing, the life of it evaporating/ leaving only the faded stain.