My Beautiful Mother!!!

This is a picture of my son, Alex, and my Mother (age88). She is such an amazing woman. Strong, compassionate, a matriarch for her family, giving.......a Mother. She has had a wonderful life; however has had many heartaches...a son who was sick most of his life and who died at age 28, another child with complicated health issues (me), her own difficult Mother who was very demanding, an interesting marriage for over 50 years, and a grand-daughter who died at the young age of 13. Through it all she has survived....with such grace and courage.

She is a constant joy to me. She has always been a little "Edith Bunker-ish" and has always said the funniest things. My sisters and I often call one another and share another funny wacky Jackie (our pet name for her) story. As she gets older I just want to love her more and more. She is changing...dramatically.....and I wish I could just hold her tight so that she would always be my Mom. But I know that she and I are transitioning from her taking care of me for so many years to me taking care of her in the best way that I can. I owe her that.

During the winter months she lives down in southern California and the rest of the year she lives in a retirement community here in Bellingham. We were raised in the Seattle area and Mom lived there for her entire life......but when my sister Jodee and her husband moved up here (after retirement) we decided that we wanted her up here near us and she's been living here for three years. She is the Bell of the Willows (the community where she lives) and has made a remarkable transition to her new home and new routines (Thank God!!!).

I talked to her yesterday and told her about the house. I wanted to wait until I could talk in complete sentences and until I could minimize the stress that we are under at the moment. She was very excited. Our current home has MANY stairs and she has always worried about me falling down them (which I have). I think she's also been worried about climbing them herself. Anyway she was happy to hear about our moving to a one story, smaller home. She reminded me that our children have all moved away and that Richard and I are getting older (thank you Mother!) and that now I will have less to take care of.

She worries about my health constantly. Of course she does!!! As she gets older she really doesn't understand alot of the issues and treatments that I am undergoing.....but all she knows is that I've been really sick at times and that I can't see very well. She introduces me as, "my youngest daughter, Sherri. She's blind!", which kind of irks me (I'm not blind...I'm visually impaired....and I get around wonderfully) but she means well. She is still driving (scary and amazing) and during the summer she often takes me on my errands. Her driving is getting a little dangerous and she promises us that she will stop driving when she turns ninety!!! We will see!!!

I love spending moments thinking about her. She has been an honor to have in my life. I will be with her through this next part of her life....meeting her where she is at and loving her deeply. It felt important that everyone have a chance to get to know her too!

(I love that there is a picture of Alex too!!!!! He really loves his Grandmother and is very attentive. He is a wonderful son and a wonderful Grandson. I love this picture of them!!!)