Well now, that's a good question. Frankly, I'm having a rather difficult time remembering what I was thinking when I wrote that - primarily because it was four years ago - so I honestly couldn't tell you for certain. My current guess is that I missed the "Ma" in the first panel, and thought it was only implied he was talking to his parents, which is inherently sad because they're dead now. 

But yeah. No idea for sure. 

Oh well!