Wednesday, January 20, 2010

A New Adventure!

As you get older, how do you feel about new adventures? I don't mean a vacation, or a new hobby. I mean a new life adventure. I've noticed as I get older(61 now), I am not much in favor of new life adventures. I'm not interested in starting a new job, or moving to another city or even a different house. I just pretty much want to keep the status quo(whatever that means).

My 84 year old neighbor lady has lived in the house behind me for 40 years. She was married to a minister and in the early years of raising five girls, they moved several times. But her husband decided to go into public work and they bought the house in which she lives.

Time is catching up with her, and she had pneumonia twice last winter and has had it already this winter. Each time she seems to grow weaker and after this episode her daughters set up nursing visits and physical therapists to come in and check on her and work with her. Of the five daughters, only one lives within 30 miles. Three live 2 and 1/2 hours away, and one lives in Colorado. So the bulk of caring for their mother falls to the one living nearest.

I knew last week something was in the works because this daughter came and spent a day working on business affairs with her mother, and Saturday she came and took her mother to look at assisted living apartments. She will be moving into one the first week of February.

This neighbor lady is good spirited, kind and would never offer a complaint about much of anything, but she did tell me last night she's having some mixed emotions about this move. I encoraged her to look at it as a new adventure. We talked a while about the good and exciting things that will come with the move(being close to the daughter is the main one). Since I live alone, I know this may also happen to me some day. I already wish I lived closer to my children, and they are only 20 to 30 minutes away, but I would like for it to be 5 or 10.

I know she will do just fine, but it will be hard looking toward her house and knowing she no longer lives there and never will again.

I hope you are having a great day. Pray for the Haitian people. Help if you can. Love one another.

3 comments:

Jennifer Warthan said...

My mom is on a new journey since the death of my father this past summer. I don't know how in the world she is managing so well.

Tipper said...

I hope your neighbor lady does well on her new adventure. I know you'll miss her though.

Twisted Fencepost said...

I cannot tell you how much I can relate to your feelings about this. It is very hard to drive past the road that my parents lived on.
I hope this new adventure brings her much happiness!

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