Always with Respect

Worried, upset, not sure of herself, concerned, loving, kind, generous, holy, prayerful, understanding, simple common sense, all of the above that's my Mom. She is 82 soon to be 83. She is very self reliant, alert, aware of what is going on, though once in a while she gets just plain old stumped. Don't we all ? She lives in her house, takes care of herself, scrubs the garage floor with Clorox and hoses it down. She makes sure the grass man trims along the side of the house she's a stickler. I guess her getting old is intimately connected with me getting older. You can't have one without the other. Because my ministry has called me 8 hours away, I think about her often. We have the two strikes your are out rule. If she doesn't send me an email telling me about her day and I can't talk to her the next morning after a couple of tries then I send in the reinforcements to check on her.

Last time she had a mini stroke. This time she was worried her 12 year old car would become unsafe and she would hurt someone. My cousin Mary stepped in to help and Aunt Mary and Uncle Sam just happened to be selling their 5 year old car with only 27,000 miles on it. All of the advice and paperwork and DMV red tape seemed overwhelming to her. So here I am just a couple of days at home and it's all fixed. The Old Car is sold thanks to Mark, she is registered and insured and ready for her almost daily trips to St. Catherine's, St. Gabriel's TOPS Friendly Market and the Beauty Parlor. She did most of the leg work herself all she needed was little boost to get her over the final hurdle. (My Pleasure)

I am so grateful that she is so capable of taking care of herself. I am so grateful that she still has her health and can live her life as she sees fit. I am proud of her ability to pay her bills on time and check her bank account to see if the government paid her Social Security check on time. She's not happy when it is a day late. I know that things will eventually change, and I am aware that sometimes when a person is her age they can change very quickly. So every moment is a gift and I never would want to inadvertently take away of her freedom and independence by taking the easy way out and making her decisions for her or telling her what to do.

How do you love possibly the most significant person in your life, when they are 82 ? Always with respect.

PS. I've started to look at the family tree again… Where both sides of my family really illegal immigrants ? To be continued…