My Mum, the story continues

This week my siblings and I completed the clearing out of Mum's house in readiness for it to be leased. This was a hard job as there were so many memories, so many emotions. It all seems so final...

The lockdown at the nursing home was lifted July 15; it'd been in place for 10 days. We siblings were very glad to be able to go visit Mum again. She continues to decline and is completely bedridden. It's an awful feeling to see her so weak and so helpless. She is lucid most of the time we visit though sometimes she talks about things that have come from the past somewhere. She sleeps most of the time and often drifts off to sleep while we visit her.

I find myself grieving deep inside, grieving for the person she once was, for the weakness in which she finds herself now, and for my own sense of loss. 91 is a good age and we all must die sometime... and I am at peace about that. However, I do feel deeply the looming loss of her physical presence here on earth.

The doctors are surprised that she lives on even with all that is wrong with her, and with all the weakness and heart failure she experiences.

Not any easy time...

Aging mothers

My plans changed dramatically when I returned from a 5 week trip to Thailand mid May. My Mum had 3 falls in a couple of weeks. I was with her during her last fall. Each time she banged her head but had no obvious injuries. With the 3rd fall she ended up with a brain hemorrhage and lost he use of her left arm and leg and was hospitalised. She's been in hospital since. Things don't look too good for her. Besides the hemorrhage, she's since had a small stroke, battled a nasty urinary tract infection, had a chest infection, a large clot develop in her left leg, etc...

She was way out of it for a while but has come good physically, at least she doesn't look as if she's going to die any minute. We (my siblings and I) have been constantly at the hospital.

Yesterday she was moved to a nursing home where she will probably live out the rest of her days. Today we found the home in lockdown as a number of residents have come down with a nasty bug... not a good time for my Mum to have been moved.

On July 3 she celebrated her 91st birthday. Here are a couple of photos of the occasion. The second includes my brother and sister and a niece.