It has been a while since I have written anything....although lots of thoughts are rumbling around these days. It is not the best of times...nor the worst of times....just times. Weddings are all over, babies are now born....growing and changing before our eyes. It seems as if life has settled in a bit. Just my mom left to take care of and for a while she seemed perfectly capable of that on her own when suddenly she went down....literally. She had one knee replacement a few years back....the other one, formally known as the good knee, decided to give out on her. She has torn her quad...not a good thing. Suddenly, the layers of the sandwich squeezed...and here we are again....sandwiched in between cuddling grandbabies and coddling the elderly.
Mom would wince at being referred to as the elderly....she doesn't think like an old person...and therefore she is not! She knows all the scores to all the Texas teams....the Rangers, the Cowboys, the Stars and the Mavs.....she is a fan of ACU sports and Roscoe High sports and any other sports that might involve somebody's grandson or the kid down the block. She knows the latest fashions and she is aware of all the reality shows and has opinions about the winners and the losers....she is "with it"! Much more so than I am....she thinks I didn't get the jewelry gene. It skipped a generation....I am not a big jewelry person. She always felt I just needed "a little something" around my neck or a few bangles on my arm. I was never much of a fan of bangles. My middle child, Katie...got the gene....and they share a love for that sort of of shiny flare.
SO....this all makes having my mom in a nursing home...even though it is temporary... very hard. She hates being there. We hate having her there...but there just aren't any good alternatives. Mom's body is giving out. She is fighting back....we are hopeful....but we all agree that her days living alone at our old home are over. This summer will mean cleaning it all out and putting it up for sale. It is closing another chapter of my life. Losing Dad was the beginning of losing so much.
While with her last weekend she showed that spunky spark....that can be exasperating but also encouraging. There is a rule in the nursing home...you are not allowed to have any drugs....prescription or over the counter in your room....for obvious reasons. Well.....my mom has always taken care of herself...thank you very much...she resents being told what she can and cannot take....or when to take it. After checking the door....she asked me to hand her her Bible. I did and she proceeded to take her contraband "drugs"....aspirin....out of her Bible! I said...."what in the world are you doing?" She smugly replied that she knew they wouldn't think to look in her Bible! Something wrong about that.......but it did give me hope that my mom has that old fighting spirit that might just be the thing that motivates her to get better and on the mend. I think the Lord surely smiled.
In the meantime....my brother and I both are living in the sandwich. He is right in the middle....and I am joining him once or twice a month....keeping the road to Abilene hot once again.
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