Sunday, March 10, 2024

Look out A to Z, I'll be back.



 A to Z theme reveal. Well this theme is pretty weak. It is Dogs I have loved, fairy tales, myths, cats birds and what grows in my yard... 


I have not blogged in awhile. Some of it is due to I have had to make choices in how I use my time. I contemplated to give up my desire to write. I look at the prolific work of Emily Bronte. She has a prodigious amount of writing and was gone from this world at 29. 

I am soon to be 68. I've had a career and retired. At 29, my writing was piss poor. I've always been a big reader and was quite a snobby reader at that age. I read a lot of classics. I'm one who has always felt comfortable in 19th century England. At that time in my life I read all of Charles Dickens and Robert Heinlein. I felt so bad when Heinlein passed. There would be no more of his stories. I read all of Galsworthy and most of Kurt Vonnegut. And you know, except for Dickens and Galworthy, I remember very little of what I read.

One thing about the internet is that I do a lot of "trash reading". You can't help but read one short article after another. The most exciting parts are the end of the unfinished title that gets you to click the link. I don't consider my blog reading as trash reading. This year I have focused on reading novels and not so much on the computer. 

I look forward to reading new blogs. I read one today of a Scottish woman. Apparently this woman has a large grey van. I've never been to Scotland. I have wanted to go and take a good walkabout in the country. 

When my mother was alive, I did a lot of genealogy. It was something I could tease apart as I spent a great deal of time sitting with my mother. I enjoy the puzzle. I had an old boss who had a first family that was not mentioned in his obituary. It took me a bit. But I found the first wife and her daughter in Oklahoma. Apparently, he was not mentioned in their family histories either. 

The point of the geneology is my DNA indicates I am half Scottish, a fourth English and the other fourth is a mixture of Welsh, Irish, German, Swedish and Norwegian. We did the DNA to find our Native American. No Native American is in the DNA but I found the links to Native Americans. 

In North America we don't always appreciate how close some of the colonial settlers lived and interacted with the Native Americans. 

I'm sure my Scottish ancestors were encouraged to leave in the first highland clearances. But I still would like to walk the hills of my ancestors. I see myself sitting on a bus resisting the urge to tell the locals of my Scottish roots. I'll just be there thinking it real, real loud. It is my understanding they are offended by American's discussing their ancestral roots. That is OK with me. I don't plan to eat any of their foods except for fish and chips and will drink plenty of hot tea with cream.. I'm sure haggis is good. But I am not about to eat the disgusting stuff. 

As you can tell, my A to Z will ramble this year. It will be what it will be. I'll try to comment more. I have stopped commenting as much. I enjoy visiting blogs but I have been a bit withdrawn and not commenting like I did at one time.



Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Scutters

 I got these little scutters before my sister passed. I thought they would cheer everyone up in the house. Who knew the person I really got them for would be gone. And so it is me being nursemaid for a raucous crowd. They slept a lot at first. Now they are comfortable. They know their morning and evening walk. They are eating in the same room with the big dogs. I never thought big dog would be used to describe my chihuahuas. 





From left to right, they are Mattie, Bella and Winnie. A trio of dachshunds just planning an escape from their enclosure. Right now they are in the dining room playing with a plastic cottage cheese container. They have dumped the plastic recyclables and apparently, the cottage cheese container is a bit better from than the soda bottles they ususally work on. 

Originally, I was getting two. Two so they could keep each other company. The man recommended the Dachshund with the yellow collar over the one with the red collar. I thought about the one with the red collar that night. I called him the next morning and asked if I could get that one too. 

The yellow and red collar pups look so much alike. Originally, it was a light brown area between the shoulders of the red collar pup that indicated it was Winnie. I had to study them fast. Mattie had a yellow collar and the other two had taken it off her. 

They look different now plus there is that personality factor. Winnie is hyper and Mattie is much calmer. Mattie is definitely a bit redder and she is slightly bigger than Winnie. The prettiest one is Bella which is a very appropriate name. Mattie has green eyes which I did not know was common for those with the Merle gene. Since I have hazel eyes, we match.

My mom called her dogs little scutters. I decided to look the word up. Scutter is used to describe active small animals. My mom is from Appalachia. They have studied the speech in that there were sections that spoke Elizabethan English. With television, I am sure that is lost now. As a child, I had hard work to get my mother to call things correctly. She would call a bra a brassiere. My 11 year old sensibilities had my work cut out. As a 13 year old, my mother called a vest a waistcoat with the pronounciation of "wesket". My sister who is ten years younger than me never heard those words from my mother. What moms will do to please their children. 

One thing from Appalachia that I love but have rarely heard is a style of singing. It is not really singing in the sense of listening to a tune. It is the singing of a story in rhyme. The singing nature is a nmemonic device to help remember a story from when oral histories were the norm. One person sings a line and then another person sings the same line back to them. This goes on for quite a long epic poem. 

There is so much lost in time. I searched youtube to see if anyone had posted one of these poems. I have a copy of one that I got at Tremont which is an educational center located in the Smoky Mountains. I will post a copy of the poem in my next post. It's a two step process. Locate the poem. Copy the poem on blogger. 

I grew up in a military town and I have always called myself Southern lite. My hometown called itself an international city in that people were from all over the country and world. As a result, I never was exposed to so many of the idiosyncrasies of the people of Appalachia or the coastal plain. I've read so many of the unique qualities they have were borne of the need to survive in the rugged environments. One thing I know is that some of the wilder tales are truly just tales. 


Sunday, May 7, 2023

Listening to the Wind

 When people die, we acknowledge they came from dust and return to dust. Well my dust is the red clay of Georgia. I grew up in a military town and my inclination when I grew up was to leave. People came and went all the time with military transfers. I left two times but returned each time. My soul is part of the Earth here. 

Thinking back to the first book I was going to write as a teenager. Somehow I was going to defend the South and people were going to get it. Except, the South is like all places. It can be a terrible, rotten place and a beautiful place. 

Now, I wonder what I really want to say.  

It is funny how time and experience changes how you view things. I lost a sister in March. It started with a backache. Three weeks later she was gone. They think she had a cancerous mass. Meanwhile a blood clot which had formed under the mass must have broken up to cause a heart attack. I was there in the hospital room when it happened. I thought she was going to throw up again. I got the nurse and she hit some button and yelled coding in the hallway.

For awhile her heart beat was there. Then it wasn't. I knew she was not going to make it. The nurse in the hallway started rubbing my back. The doctor said it had been 40 minutes. They had to stop brain damage had occurred at that point. I go back in the room and for some crazy reason start cleaning up. Picking up trash organizing the items I had brought to the room. I thought to take a load out to the car. My sister lying in the bed.

I called the funeral home. They tell me the hospital does not usually come to the room to collect someone. The nurses ask me to step out so they can get my sister together. I come in. She is in the body bag and the reality just crashes. I tell what is left and hidden of my sister I am so sorry. I get my things to leave. 

Getting on to the elevator, the nurse that coded for my sister was coming up with her breakfast. My sister had wakened me at 5 am to get the nurses to reposition her on the bed. By 6 am she was gone. The nurse gave a sad look. My mind said, "Life is for the living."  She gets off, I go down that elevator because you can enter the dining area and there is a door that goes to the parking lot. When leaving, one of the hospital security men zip up as I start to pay for my parking. I fumble for my card. I guess he had been alerted. I don't have to pay. Just hand him my parking slip. 

And now I listen to the wind. Today, there was no wind. Somedays, the wind really blows. I used to think the wind sounded like the ocean rushing through the leaves. Now I am listening for voices. I haven't heard any voices. I just think of the people I have lost and find myself straining to hear any of them. The wind is what it is.

I miss you Julia.

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

 Although I live near one of the many, many edges of the universe; I have not fallen off - yet.

A pair of Canadian Geese with three chicks in a parking lot mud puddle.

I don't know why we continue to call them Canadian Geese. They live in central GA yearround. I'm sure they honk with a Southern accent.

And yes they considered walking their three chicks across 5 lanes of a busy road. Instead, they settled on walking down the road. I had the urge to stop traffic and get them across. With a heavy heart, I got back in my car and continued about my day. I did the only thing I could. I said a little prayer for the small family. Usually, they are in huge flocks. I've seen traffic come to a standstill when a large grouping decided to cross the road. We've had a lot of rain this year.


About three weeks ago, I was lucky enough to go to a writer's conference in nearby Eatonton, Georgia. Three major writers hail from the area. They are Joel Chandler Harris, Flannery O'Conner and Alice Walker. During one lunch session, Alice Walker spoke to the group. I enjoyed looking at the crowd. Alice Walker was interesting.  I don't share her idealism in seeking world peace. 

The world is a terrible place the day we are born and a the only reason we see it so bad when we are older is experience. I was a bit streetwise from a young age. But not like some children I had taught which is a whole novel. I've also been dreadfully gullible at times. All I know is to not make expensive or life changing decisions in a hurry; and if it sounds too good to be true, it is almost never true.

There was a professional photographer there who was quite gracious in telling me I had plenty of time to get a novel out there.  He heard of a 90 year old woman who had just graduated med school. I had that balloon above my head where I voiced loudly a silent thought which was,"That is stupid." My thought is she would not be practicing long enough to be seasoned as a doctor and the other was what young person was turned down. There is a lot of competition to getting in med school. 

I googled the 90 year old med graduate. It turned out she graduated with a bachelors degree in general studies. She had started her studies in the early 1950s. The seven oldest med school graduates ranged in age from 37 to 66. The man who graduated from med school in New Jersey at 62 was not on the list. The 66 year old man graduated in Romania. I wanted to be a doctor but did not have the grades to get in due to the keen competition. So he obviously hit a sore point with me. 

I debate in telling you more about the conference or how I put my foot in my mouth and left somberly and quietly to drive home. 

It really wasn't that big a deal. I told the photographer if I was younger I would be chasing after him. From there it was downhill. He told me. He did not know that age was a problem. DIFFERENT generation is all I can say. I am not glib. He did give me a wolfie smile. I try to deflect a wee bit and mention to a younger woman, how he would be a good catch. This girl goes, I'm only 26. Again my mind is looking how to escape this awkwardness. I stifle the what the hell you mean only 26. In my day, you would have been married with four kids. I was not married or have four kids at 26, but I had been fired from a job.  

Another woman my age made a wee joke which saved me a bit. Then I say well the older ones have money. Then I launched into telling the 26 year old why I thought her writing was really good a second time for the day as I headed for the door. 

I have been out of the social concourse for too long. I have never liked crowds. My entire family is shy and I have accomplished a lot in not being so shy as an adult. Matter of fact, many are surprised I fight shyness in that I can be outspoken. 

I remember absent mindedly winking at a man in a department store. He was interested which was very awkward with his wife beside him. You can say what you like. But women in my age or background were discreet and you certainly did not wantomly have one night stands which I understand are more common today. People had them when I was young and about. Plus in my young adulthood, you had to consider herpes and then hell, there was AIDS. I've always admired gay men in they demanded to be accepted even with AIDS raging among them in the 80's. 

The 80's sound so long ago. I got a mediocre haircut before the conference from a hairdresser who was born about 1980. She asked me to guess her age. I warned her not to get too sensitive. I am good with ages. I could tell she had had a lot of sun exposure even though she was black. I got her age right. I subtracted 5 years from my actual guess. You have to consider someone's feelings.  I did not tell her about sun exposure but she later said she was from Panama City, FL. Who can resist the beach. 

The hairdresser was a gay woman and I told her the truth. That was such a small part of people's lives. Being gay is no one's business nor was there anything wrong with being gay. She made sure I knew where the new shop she was moving to was located. Once again that bubble over my head said, "It depends on how my hair looks when I wash it tomorrow." It did not look that hot that evening.

 My brother and I had gone to get manicure and a pedicure. The hair shop was still open when we left the nail salon and that was why we went there. I have gotten worse haircuts. So I will try her one more time and be more particular about what I want. She was so wound up I suspect something had happened to get her so talkative. Although I live in a world of silence most of the day, I prefer the woman at the nail salon who did not talk. 

My hair will grow. No biggie. Propositioning a man is no biggie. I'm just one trained for tea table talk when many consider a tea table an anachronism. I lost a tooth about a month ago. When I went to the dentist, I took the tooth out of my pocket. It was a crown. The dentist put it back in my mouth. So now I can give that wide smile I was taught by my mother. I suspect mom was trying to calm down the loud tomboy she had as a daughter. I came by it honestly. When my mother moved to Macon to work, her aunts who weren't that much older than her asked her not to tell people about driving a tractor. My grandmother was a tomboy too. 

And here lies the rub; I have considered getting a boyfriend. Being out of the game for so long, I don't know where the heck to begin. Like most things in my life, inertia will take over. In the workshop, people kept refering to what "the universe" wills. I don't know if I am that Presbyterian. All I know is it may be hard to find a good man for me. I don't want to get married. I don't want to be used. I don't want to be a sugar mama. I don't want a sugar daddy. I want them to be physically active like me. And if they are younger, they may not be retired and available. Eh, being single looks pretty good with the uncertainty. 

At the moment, I am concentrating on making a life at my house this year. The Covid lockdown was not a huge change for me. I just need to get a lot things in my life in order. Like settling my older brother's estate, then settling my mother's estate, getting rid of all the things we have accumulated  over the years. Worst of all, I am the biggest packrat of all. I try to put a few things in the garbage every Thursday. 

So I got a busy life. Not an exciting one. 

Thursday, January 12, 2023

Being Swampwise




 The small gray dog in the large dog bed is my mother's former dog. She now is mine and has joined my two primary dogs. The large black pit bull is content with the small bed. And yes, the small dog bosses her. I'm down to six dogs and both of these females are the boss dogs. The large dog is the real boss. It is funny how they meet up outside and do the dog version of a high five. 

It certainly is a new year and direction in my life. I told my siblings which live with me that none of us are making big decisions for awhile and that includes me. I've been organising some of the closets. We are fully stocked with alcohol gel, rubbing alcohol, peroxide and Gold Bond lotion.  Most of that clutter in the photo has gone to Happy Hour Service Center to use in their group homes. Now why does that part of the room still look so messy?

I've been packing up my mother's clothes. She has a lot of nice stuff. We were huge bargain hounds and stocked. When I retired, I felt ashamed at how many clothes I had bought. Of course all of it was at terrific prices, black slacks and the like. I did give away a great deal. I will be donating many more. We have more than we need. I'm just not ready. Plus my mother wore a smaller size and I have been losing weight. 

I made some boiled cookies over the holidays and it has put a craving on me for more. So I am resisting the urge to make more and hopefully this will lessen my desire to eat them. In a nutshell, this is why I have sworn off sugar before. One thing I know about having Diabetes 2 is that a sign of it being out of whack is craving sweets. In the past I have just eaten what I craved in that I would usually lose my taste for it. But I have a doctor's appointment soon and I have no idea what my A1c number is. 

During November, I had a hectic schedule with my mom in the hospital. I spent the night at the hospital to manage my mother's fears and sometimes the workers waking her up at 3 am to do labs. There was one who suggested I hold my mother down while she drew blood. I declined her offer. 

The young nurse who was in charge asked me why not since my mother had dementia. I said nothing to her. But when I gathered my thoughts, my ideas for the perfect answer would have been "how about gently waking my mother up and gently telling her what you need and instead of  flipping on the lights and grabbing my mother's arm within seconds of entering the room". Like my mother, I am reluctant to give life to harsh thoughts. The next night the same nurse met me in the hallway and told me I could stop any treatment of my mother during the night. I did not tell her my thoughts which were "You are damn right about that." Some thoughts don't take a lot of time.

By December, my mom was in hospice. I told her she never had to go to the hospital again. I was lucky in being able to hire a woman that my mother liked to sit with her during the day so I could tend to the others and have a little break. I have no idea what I ate. I did take most of my meds. Time had a life of it's own. 

From what I have read, carrying the gene for Diabetes 2 has to do with an adaptation for tolerating cold. After being diagnosed, I realised my dad had three siblings who had diabetes. I don't know that I could have totally prevented the disease. My two older brothers have had diabetes and they maintained a normal weight their entire life. I could write a book on what I shoulda, coulda. But not making boiled cookies is a good restart.

The irony is I can easily skip breakfast, pick at the serious food I prepare and love vegetables. Depending on the time of day, I can resist cake and the like. But late at night, bring on the chips or more likely saltine crackers. I feel fortunate that I can afford vegetables to eat. I may get my ducks in a row and start a reasonably sized garden. 

In the beginning I could control my diabetes with not eating and moving more. Now, I go out and work hard, get hot and my blood sugar is high. That is aggravating. I have always liked working in the yard. Oh well, I have been pretty good since the first of the year. Hopefully that will be enough. It is humiliating telling the doctor. Well, I have been irresponsible and took care of my health like a errant teenager. When my sister had a stroke, I ate a pack of peanut m&m candies every night for supper. At the doctors, they bragged on how good my A1c was. Maybe I will get lucky this time.  

2022 was filled with death for me. Many people I knew passed. On January 9th, 2023 Dick Flood who was known by many school children as Okefenokee Joe passed. He was 90 and his leaving made me think of my mother. He entered the VA hospital in Augusta in late November where he stayed until his passing.

I was lucky in getting to know Dick Flood. I knew him on an acquaintance level. I first saw Okefenokee Joe during a school program. I was in my mid-thirties. I remember the story he shared where his worst bite was from a woman. At the time, I thought a woman had actually bit him. Later, I learned it was from a divorce. He had been married several times. He never liked anyone to describe snakes as sneaky. Snakes weren't sneaky, people were.

One thing he always taught children was to be swampwise. This is a program that has been shared on Georgia Public Television. The program has been well watched. And like many creatives, he never made any money off of it. I did notice he had written a book so I ordered it.

This is the link to the video.

Swampwise - Okefenokee Joe


'

Saturday, December 24, 2022

 I have read mine and a few other people's share of the gossip of Harry and Meghan in the wake of Queen Elizabeth's passing. Apparently Camilla snorted her tea when Harry suggested family counseling. The story made me realize a lot of the news of the royal family are sheer fabrications. Not that I haven't snorted some tea. It just happens so rarely as you mature. And who would have shared that tidbit? If you are having a royal family row, you really need to be able to trust the help that are within earshot.

Harry is following the path of many second and third sons who moved to North America to make a life of their own. Sadly, feeding the best bits to the first born and leaving nothing to the second and third born is unfair. I can see why such a book would sell. It is the sort of book that you would snort your tea when you consider the wisdom of writing it. 

There is a sadness to family problems. Everyone who has any family has them. In my income level, people air their dirty laundry on Facebook or Twitter for free.. I've never read any of the royal  biographies unless you count the Beatles. If I had a better memory you would be impressed with what information I have uncovered about the Fab Four. 

Long ago I had a friend who came from a prominent family. According to her, no one had mental illness, no one was an alcoholic, no one was developmentally delayed. No one had packed the family up to move with that night's dinner a live chicken being held in a paper bag on grandma's knee.. Her family was indeed exceptional. Everyone was a professional with college degrees. 

In Georgia, most of the people of Scottish descent are related. When they settled Georgia, the Scots had like 15 children and those 15 children had their 15. Eventually, it was hard to avoid a cousin. Anyone new to the region had a suitor. This friend had an aunt that did geneology. We were there connected to her. In the back of my mind, I thought loudly, well you just did not know your family well enough. I am kin to some wonderful accomplished people with feet of clay. 

My mother passed in her sleep in the early morning hours of December 24th, I can understand why King Charles was particular who came to the death of Queen Elizabeth. There is no handbook in how to handle death, grief or confusion about what you should or should not do.  Being a monarch does not shield you from death and it's processes. There are some things best left unshared. 

Usually my mother was rather quiet as she conversed with all of us living and dead. It was like dreaming out loud. Mom had stopped eating about two weeks ago. But she loved her ice water. I woke up around 3:30 am and realized there had been no request for ice water. At first I thought she was sleeping. I got up to check her. As much as I knew what had happened, there is disbelief. I sat down before rechecking my mother. Initially I was going to wait until daybreak to call hospice. Our well had frozen and I needed to hook up the heater in the well house. 

At 5:30 am I called hospice for the on call nurse to come out and pronounce my mother dead. I woke up my siblings and they gathered before the nurse came. There was some tears. We are having a hard freeze like most of the rest of the country. My dad passed during an unusual snow and hard freeze on December 18, 2000. My sister had a birthday yesterday and I suspect that is what my mother had waited on.

By daybreak. My mother had been pronounced dead. I helped the nurse get my mother cleaned up. As the nurse tied up details with paperwork, I went outside to put a heater in my well house. The nurse told me goodbye in the backyard. The funeral home would be by within an hour. After my mother was taken, I checked the well house. The well did not unthaw until the afternoon. It could have been earlier. I went to sleep after cooking dinner. We did not have water until after I woke up around 4 PM.                                                                                                                                                    

For Harry and Meghan, it is not that their trials and tribulations are unimportant. It is more that they have been blessed with a lot in their lives. They are in the right country. Personally, I think it would be really cool for Archie or Lillibet to grow up to become President or Secretary of State and their first cousin be King. I was disappointed to read there is a conspiracy theory connected to that. Some folks know how to ruin all of the fun. 

When I was a child, I was glad Prince Charles was not married. After reading the blue book of fairy tales, the red book of fairy tales and the green book of fairy tales in second grade it was a very real possibilty that he would marry me. The original fairy tales could be much darker stories than what Disney sells. In the original story of the Little Mermaid, the Little Mermaid is turned to sea foam. As ridiculous as the idea that a young American girl would grow up and marry the future King of England was. You would think the ominous nature of some of fairy tales would have given me caution. 

One thing I plan to do after my mother's funeral is to write down as many of her stories she has shared with me during my life. The title tenatively is, "Have I told you how I met my husband." I don't plan to publish it. These are ordinary stories of an ordinary life. We all have stories. Some of them more tragic than others.

Then I will tackle an inept person who gets carried away with conspiracy theories in one of the stories I have been working on. . 

Conspiracy theories are darker than fairy tales.The conspiracy theories I have heard have more plot holes and are a bit more far fetched than the average fairy tale. I always have more ideas on stories than I could really write or anyone could write. But a conspiracy spoof parady or a character that gets real excited over a conspiracy theory. Have him (you know a woman would not be that stupid "Ha" just kidding) go on a Don Quixote type mission inspired by his theory. Then, he does something really good accidentally and the conspiracy theory falls to dust by the conclusion. 

Meanwhile, have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah. Yule, Bodhi,  Dimwali this December holiday season brings. The New Year is nigh.


  


Saturday, December 10, 2022

 It is late October and the morning air feels crisp and bright. I always let the wildflowers (weeds) grow tall along my drive way to enjoy the false foxglove, golden rod, rabbit tobacco, wild daisies, dog fennel and sedge grass in bloom. The goldenrod is fading and the false foxglove is going to seed. Nearby I hear dogs barking. My dogs pay them no mind.  A rifle is fired; hunting season is here. 

The deer hang out on my property during hunting season. We did not get any muscadine grapes this year. A doe and her twins ate them all. They were so dang efficient. I grew enough for the wildlife and me. But not enough for that doe and her children. I'll mow a wee bit this month and the turkeys will hang out when turkey season begins. 

We have a large buck that grazes in my yard. When my chihuahua mixes come out. He doesn't stop or look up. When he sees me, he continues. But when my bulldog comes with me, he skips out of sight. One time two of my dogs cornered a deer. Both dogs suffered a great deal of boxing. One had to stay indoors for about a week to convalesce . Apparently, it was horrible. 

I feel a bit jealous when I look at Japanese gardens and landscapes. They are so immaculate. We have very little of that. Calloway gardens are nearby and I don't go there as often as I could. I get very few stretches of time. I do plan to make a plan to go. We live in a warm humid climate for the most part. I use the months of November to February to try to keep my small piece of woodland under control close to my house. The rest of my yard is fairly wild. I used to keep a nice path mowed.

I don't like the idea of zoos. What the big pity is that some endangered animals still exist because of zoos. I decided to do a quick web search and there were many animals of which I had not heard of that no longer existed in the wild. The one I found the most interesting was the wild horse. It was not an ancestor  but more of a cousin of the domesticated horse. The wild horses in North America are actually feral domesticated horses. 

The wild horse which is called the Przewalskis horse is threatened with extinction. It's numbers were decimated in that hunters hunted them for food and with rifles, they hunted them too well. They are using zoo stocks of the horse to reintroduce these creatures to China, Mongolia, and Kyzakhstan.  More Info: https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/przewalskis-horse.

Deer were reintroduced in many states including Georgia. They were overhunted until their numbers were very low around 1925. The reintroduction began in 1925 when there might have been about 20,000. In 1975, the population of white tailed deer was about 250,000. 

My mom used to like to see her dad leave with a rifle. They would be eating meat that night. My favorite story is how her dad brought home a turtle and her mom butchered and cooked it. People were so resourceful. My mom was born in 1930. When I told her about deer being reintroduced, she said that made sense in that she did not remember them in her Northeast Alabama childhood.

My mother started leaving this world on November 2nd. Dementia reared it's head. One night it is just a very tiny black kitten. Another night I had to throw an evil man out of the bedroom. I open the door to the bedroom and order him out. The normally obedient dogs just look at me from their beds. Hospice has begun. I've met the charge nurse. Tomorrow is her first follow up. A social worker and a chaplain came this past Monday. I'm very grateful. I had promised my mom that she no longer had to go to the hospital or meet with any doctors. About a week ago, she asked for a bag of corn chips which she munched as the rest of us gathered in her room ate our snacks. It was a small and final moment. Now she sips a bit of water late in the evening and no longer eats. 

My family has been very lucky. Sarah, the younger sister of my childhood friend has been coming and helping us out with sitting with my mother. People give me much more credit than I deserve for my caregiving. I truly am losing my best friend in life. I've had my clashes with my mother and it is damn difficult to take care of an elderly parent. .When dementia settles in, it is vicious. Add to that, like your siblings, your mother knows how to push your buttons. One night I look over at her and she is giving me a look which is not friendly. In her hand is a bank envelop. I looked in the envelop several days later, It is about six hundred dollars. I've had control of my mother's money for over twenty years. 

I have resented having to take care of my mother and handicapped siblings at times. In later years, I have learned it was a privilege. Now that my mother is in the process of passing, I'm surprised to know my taking care of my mother was more from having a deep relationship with her and not so much as my duty to my mother. While Sarah was watching my mother, I took my siblings to the nail salon and then to eat Chinese food. We had five dogs in the car. While riding in the car, I had to tell them to be prepared mentally for our mother passing. We may witness some unpleasant things. 

The suddenness has been crushing and the not knowing how this will playout leaves me stunned. You hold out hope and then you just look at what is going to happen no matter what. When the nurse spoke of a natural death, I winced. Walking down my driveway at twilight, the moon was rising full and orange. It was truly a beautiful sight. You would think in your grief that the world would be quiet and disappear from view.

Today, my widowed mother asked me about what my father wanted. From what she has said to many, clearly my father was what she loved most in life. During her first hospital stay this month, a nurse came in and asked her how she was feeling. My mother replied, "Have I told you how I met my husband?" All the stories are going with her. 92 years is a heck of a life to live. There is never enough time, eh?  




Look out A to Z, I'll be back.

 A to Z theme reveal. Well this theme is pretty weak. It is Dogs I have loved, fairy tales, myths, cats birds and what grows in my yard...  ...