♥️

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms!

I'm still waiting for Raffi to bring me flowers....

This was a VERY happy Mother's Day weekend for us..

Oh my..I have been offline as my Mom has been ailing since February after a fall..

Just last Saturday we got her home with an aide...who had her up and walking, getting stronger...

Enough that Mom could get into my car to attend her grandson's wedding just Friday!!!

To think just a month ago we thought she was leaving us....

Next up..her 93rd birthday on the 21st!!

I don't have the digital version but she ROCKED the photo booth with all the grandkids!!

Lovely Beelady!

Beelady, that’s wonderful!
Congratulations to the newlyweds as well!

Wow, she looks wonderful! So happy for you all...

That’s a wonderful photograph!

Fantastic!

Congratulations!

Happy Mother's Day!

Thanks all...

I know Mom is feeling better as she called me today with an IT question about her computer..She was trying to log on...

Time to get Mom a new laptop for her birthday!

It is all so astonishing to us..She is the longest living relative in history in our family on both sides.

We are so grateful.

Your mother really is an example of the longevity of brain health - and from your description of her character, well deserved.

My mother who just turned 99 (right before Mother's Day) is, I'm afraid, the opposite. Though barely surviving many catastrophic illnesses and accidents her mind lags far behind her body's remarkable resilience. Blindness and deafness (much aggravated by Covid isolation), have left her with little sense of present reality. She supposedly enjoyed a small, lavish birthday party but when I inquired afterwards, she finally confessed to "not really remembering it."

Reportedly, she is in no pain. Though she welcomes occasional visits from my surviving brother and SIL, she scarcely recognizes them, forgetting conversations in minutes. Phone calls between us (when they can be coordinated) are scarcely intelligible to or from her, requiring "translation" by SIL. (Her cognitive diagnosis is Alzheimer's, and we're struggling to get her approved for hospice.)

We wonder if she enjoys life, although luckily for her, the distant past in which she dwells, seems to be entirely happy. In it, no one has died, nor has she any regrets. Helped by SIL's strict censorship, she seems blessed by a filter screening out all negativity. Mom inquires about all her long-gone siblings and parents, without asking after her favorite child, who died unannounced two years ago. (She was never told, nor does she appear curious.) Even her frequent hard falls, often accompanied by fractures, don't seem to register. Her facility doesn't permit straps in her wheelchair, nor even bed rails to protect her - something about federal rules prohibiting restraint.

We even debate whether her most recent medical directives (including a DNR) are still valid considering her present equanimity. She sees a beautician at least weekly, while SIL continues purchasing her expensive lounge and sleepwear, even though she can't see herself in a mirror. When she finally spends down her remaining assets (it seemed utterly impossible when she began her"journey" to old age), she'll be moved to a Medicaid nursing home. That will mean having a room-mate and far less personal attention. We wonder if the difference will register, though all previous residences were upscale with pampered care. Hopefully, not.

My grandmother lived to be 77. Then she chose to have open heart surgery due to a heart defect she suffered as an illness when she was a child. The surgery did not go well and she spent three miserable months in the hospital before she died.

My grandfather lived to be 93. He lived alone. He drove. He was completely independent. One day when my aunt was visiting they went somewhere. And he started taking his clothes off in a parking lot. She drove him from Tampa to Tallahassee and put him in an assisted living facility. He died within two weeks. He had always been adamant that he did not want to live in one.