the eagle has landed

On a scale of 1 to 10 the stress factor of my life these last five or so years has been a solid 13 which plays hell with your serotonin. The beginning of that era was when my father did a hit and run crossing the by-pass after taking mom for her hair appointment. She had given up driving after totaling her 3rd vehicle on that very same route from home to town. He could no longer drive after his hit and run thanks to the doctor and policeman who saw what a mess he was. Luckily, that went well and he threw the keys down and got over it. That situation morphed into the three of us locals doing grocery runs/hairdos/church delivery and pickup and much much more! For a long time mom's bridge buddies picked her up for lunch and dessert, the ones who still drove that is. She didn't play because she couldn't see but she was a straight up bridge fool back in the day. To her the best part was making special treats for the players and whomever hosted that night (which then turned into day) tried to make Martha Stewart look like a slouch.

The past few years have been filled with more and more medical problems for mom due to osteoporosis and CHF. There was a broken foot from the last wreck followed by sepsis from cortisone injections in her knee followed by dehydration followed by a broken femur. Each incident required one (or more) ambulance transports and multiple transfers from facility to facility depending on insurance. At 81 it seems her medicare days are running out so it's time for state assistance. BG was off today so we tag teamed to get her across the parking lot to the new and improved care facility. As we were leaving we ran into Aunt Granny wheeling around in her chair trying to find her room. The staff couldn't have been nicer and it was a very relaxed atmosphere right down to the talking bird named Jocko in the lobby. There was a kid sitting there looking bored waiting for her mama to get off work while a couple of residents fed Jocko. I honestly felt like she was home.

I pretty much fought tears all day so it was fortunate that Seth Rogan's twin turned up with doughnuts of I would have been a complete mess. Nothing calms your nerves like pure sugar! Several of my co-workers asked about Mama and a couple of them went to visit her that first night when I was setting a boundary of sorts. I was running out the door today and thought I heard "good luck with your mom" and turned around to say huh? That's not what it was at all and I'm over that. For the nurses and RTs and EMS and every other kind of healthcare professional who have treated my mama like your own and helped a girl out? Thanks to you, no harm was done.

Keeping grace and faith close by ^j^