Today is mother’s 83rd birthday. Over the last couple of years I have watched as she has become increasingly frail. She is down to 94 pounds now and is all skin and bones. She is definitely slowing down as her heart becomes increasingly worse. She can not go as she used to and it frustrates her.
I am thankful that Pixie wandered into our home three years ago. That little cat has done wonders for my Mom. Pixie’s favorite nap place in my Mom’s lap. Mom will sit down for longer then she planned because Pixie is comfortable on her lap and she doesn’t want to disturb her. Pixie also makes her laugh with her nose bonks and wanting to be petted and begging for treats. She will race around the house chasing her imaginary friend cracking Mom up.
Mom’s hearing is definitely going but she doesn’t want to acknowledge it. I find myself having to practically yell before she can understand. Sometimes she is asking what before I can get a sentence out and I have to repeat it louder. It is frustrating to have to yell but she has always been sensitive about her hearing and even when Dad was alive ten years ago she didn’t want to admit her hearing was going. So I just talk louder and plan on repeating myself several times until she understands.
She is becoming forgetful. For the last two nights I have had to go down and see what was wrong with her CD player. For two nights in a row I have had to put the CD in the right way. I patiently explain to her that the label side needs to be up and the silver side down before it can play. I imagine I will have to do this from now on. For some reason she can no longer remember which was the label goes.
But in the last year or so I have noticed a mellowing in her. I guess the shock of finding out that her daughter and granddaughter were both Democrats and voted for Obama has tempered her view that the Republicans were always right and the Democrats were always wrong. She has noticed the state of the economy and realized that it was her party in control that saw the decline of her savings. She actually voted for our mayor even though she ran as a Democrat because she really likes Sue Murray. She is making my brother turn Fox News down or change channels when I am in the dining room trying to eat my supper because she knows that his extreme right wing politics upset me. He will never change his politics but at least he has learned to keep quiet around me because I am an Obama supporter and I don’t care to listen to people who want our President to fail.
My mother though still has the capacity to surprise me. Lately I have been purchasing some CDs from Amazon from singer/actor John Barrowman. I discovered him originally after watching "Doctor Who" and "Torchwood" and then discovering he got his start in musical theater. Musical theater is one of my big loves. I was playing a selection from his CD “Reflections on Broadway” called “Tell My Father” because it was from a show about the Civil War and her Grandfather fought in that war. Her own Mom was so proud that her Dad was a Yankee Civil War Veteran. I was telling Mom that my friend at work and I were joking and saying that it was such a waste for women that Barrowman is openly gay. She shocked me when she said “well as long as he is happy it is okay.” My mother is a staunch conservative Catholic and she has realized that gays are human beings. It is quite a big step. I guess having a liberal daughter with a lot of gay friends is rubbing off. ;-)
I am thankful that Pixie wandered into our home three years ago. That little cat has done wonders for my Mom. Pixie’s favorite nap place in my Mom’s lap. Mom will sit down for longer then she planned because Pixie is comfortable on her lap and she doesn’t want to disturb her. Pixie also makes her laugh with her nose bonks and wanting to be petted and begging for treats. She will race around the house chasing her imaginary friend cracking Mom up.
Mom’s hearing is definitely going but she doesn’t want to acknowledge it. I find myself having to practically yell before she can understand. Sometimes she is asking what before I can get a sentence out and I have to repeat it louder. It is frustrating to have to yell but she has always been sensitive about her hearing and even when Dad was alive ten years ago she didn’t want to admit her hearing was going. So I just talk louder and plan on repeating myself several times until she understands.
She is becoming forgetful. For the last two nights I have had to go down and see what was wrong with her CD player. For two nights in a row I have had to put the CD in the right way. I patiently explain to her that the label side needs to be up and the silver side down before it can play. I imagine I will have to do this from now on. For some reason she can no longer remember which was the label goes.
But in the last year or so I have noticed a mellowing in her. I guess the shock of finding out that her daughter and granddaughter were both Democrats and voted for Obama has tempered her view that the Republicans were always right and the Democrats were always wrong. She has noticed the state of the economy and realized that it was her party in control that saw the decline of her savings. She actually voted for our mayor even though she ran as a Democrat because she really likes Sue Murray. She is making my brother turn Fox News down or change channels when I am in the dining room trying to eat my supper because she knows that his extreme right wing politics upset me. He will never change his politics but at least he has learned to keep quiet around me because I am an Obama supporter and I don’t care to listen to people who want our President to fail.
My mother though still has the capacity to surprise me. Lately I have been purchasing some CDs from Amazon from singer/actor John Barrowman. I discovered him originally after watching "Doctor Who" and "Torchwood" and then discovering he got his start in musical theater. Musical theater is one of my big loves. I was playing a selection from his CD “Reflections on Broadway” called “Tell My Father” because it was from a show about the Civil War and her Grandfather fought in that war. Her own Mom was so proud that her Dad was a Yankee Civil War Veteran. I was telling Mom that my friend at work and I were joking and saying that it was such a waste for women that Barrowman is openly gay. She shocked me when she said “well as long as he is happy it is okay.” My mother is a staunch conservative Catholic and she has realized that gays are human beings. It is quite a big step. I guess having a liberal daughter with a lot of gay friends is rubbing off. ;-)
So happy birthday mother. You are 83 years young today and of course Pixie, the little cat that Mom decided gets to share her birthday since we don’t really know when she was born except sometime in early July.
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