It started many years ago when she was diagnosed with COPD and Congestive Heart Failure (CHF). But, I lived 900 miles away in SC, so my dealings with all that goes with that were minimal. But, time ticked on and her health began failing more and more each year. Until, she started getting pneumonia and becoming very weak.
So, last fall, Scott and I had to make the decision to go home and talk to mom about moving her to SC, where I could be here for her more and be an advocate for her health care. At the time she was on 23 different medications and no doctor had a clue what the other doctors were doing for her. If you haven't had that moment in life yet where you've had to sit down and change the roles and basically tell your parent this is what they are going to do for the rest of their life, begin preparing yourself now. She was amicable, even agreeable, but I could see on her face the immediate fear and anxiety of what her future was going to hold. She had lived in the same town for 82 years and now we were going to sell most of her belongings and move her into a facility where she would be a total stranger. What were we thinking????
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| Yes, this is how I rode for 1000 miles!! |
Six months later, her house sells, we have an estate sale to sell most of her things, we pack up the van with the remaining belongings and the 3 of us head off to South Carolina. Have you ever done a 1000 mile road trip with an 82 year old woman??? Little advice here...DON'T!! I'm pretty sure there is no bathroom between St. Louis, MO and Bluffton, SC we have not visited. It was on this very trip that I learned my patience was about to increase exponentially over the next several months if not years!
We arrived at our house, took the night to rest, then hit the ground running the next morning getting her apartment all set up and ready for her to move in. It was always easy to know just where her apartment was. Just go up the stairs, turn to the right and it's the door directly across from Santa Claus. Yes, you read that right....Santa Claus. Yep, older man, white beard, so he lives the part!
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| He adds stuff as it gets closer to Christmas! |
This is where the story gets really funny. After we got her settled in her apartment, which was a nice little 2 room apartment with a kitchenette, I thought she'd begin to make friends, love the offered activities, I'd visit once or twice a week and we'd each go on with our lives.
What was I thinking?? She'd lived in the same town for 82 years!! She'd had the same friends for a lot of that time. It was a completely foreign concept to me. I basically left that town at 18 years old. So yeah, I was crazy thinking this was all going to be easy, even fun. Well, maybe it's a skewed view of fun.....but it was about to begin....
Until, next time friends, may you wait with baited breath as this journey of parenting the parent continues!!!
