A Generation Gone

Dad and Mum with one of their race horses. Circa 1954.

These last few days I've been at my mother's small apartment, going through photos and other belongings...all her little treasures.

Even the most mundane of things, an address book, held hidden glimpses into my mother's daily life. With each new discovery, I felt both excitement and sadness. Today is the final moving day.

All her precious items, now boxed and marked, must be moved to someone's house or garage, to be sifted through yet again. My unasked for winter project is now scanning all her photos into my computer so I can burn CD's for all the family. Some I will print out and others will require special care and retouching, like a rare photo of my great grandmother I didn't realize mum had kept safe in one such album.

As I looked through some 50 photo albums and 75 envelope packets of photos, I came to a harsh realization. My mother was the very last of her generation in my family and now my sisters and I are the oldest generation.

I thought of what my mother must have felt as her sisters and brothers passed before her, her husband passing too. And I looked upon my sisters and knew we too would go through the same thing, as each of us passes into shadow and leaves behind the next generation. I can only hope that they will be as proud of the long line they come from as I have been, and that they share more than the physical family traits passed down through the centuries. I hope they also share the magick and the love.

Stressed and DeStressing

My mum fell in her apartment Sunday morning about 2 in the a.m. and no one knew since she lives in an independent senior living facility. If her neighbor hadn't awoken early and heard a pitiful cry for help around 7:30 a.m., my mum would have been on the floor for more than the 5 1/2 hrs. she'd already spent. She is doing best as she can and I am going up to hospital every day.

At least no bones were broken. So the family is thankful for that, but OMG, I am so mad, and no one really I can get mad at. I can't watch her every second of the day. We try to take turns and someone be with her in the daytime and even some nights, but there is no way we can do a 24/7...

We even got her a special life alert button, but she got a hair up her 'you know what' and canceled the service. She did get a different service, though, but they use only a wrist bracelet button for alert and the 'bracelet' is made of velcro and it digs into her skin and bothers her no matter how loose I make it. So she simply doesn't wear it. She wraps it around her walker. When she fell, her leg pushed the walker about three feet away and she couldn't crawl to reach it. ::sigh::

Needless to say I am under a bit of stress, worrying over mum. The only solution and potential answer to our dilemma is one we do not want to face. I cannot stand the idea of her going into a nursing home, and she has said we are all cursed if we put her in one. Now, I don't think she'd really curse her offspring whom she loves, but then again, she is a cranky old witch. :P

In the meanwhile, the plans to go to Florida have been delayed for a couple of weeks until we see how mum is and if she's going to be okay. Whew.

Last night I sat here and simply couldn't write, so I decided to go into SL and check out a landmark someone sent me and I ran into a mer friend of mine, Peaches. So I poured out my story of woe and we shopped for virtual fantasy clothing. lol. Yes, I know. Shopping is good for the soul. In RL it's more costly, so SL is perfect shopping therapy.  lol. The store is called Evie's Closet and they specialize in medieval/fantasy outfits. The black number I am wearing in the pic is an example of the styles there. It's something I bought last night and threw on then and there. :)

I don't think I asked Peaches where she got those purple boots, but I bet it was at Bootgasm. lol. Yep, virtual dolly clothing shopping is damn good therapy since I can escape the worry for a little while.

Of course, I am heading up to the hospital in a few, so I may have to drop in and shop again tonight. Either that or eat a bag of chocolate and blow my diet. :)

Until next time...

~ Cass

Be Careful What You Wish For

These past few days have been interesting to say the least. My mum decided she needed new carpeting and tile in her little apartment at the senior complex. After a few months of pestering the management, she got her wish. Personally I wonder how they held out so long. The mumenator is seldom denied. That’s why she is the mumenator after all.

The problem with getting your wish is that sometimes we want things and we don’t always think through all of the repercussions our wishes may bring– to ourselves or to others.

For instance, mum never thought past the fact that all her little old lady friends in the senior building got new carpeting and why didn’t she? Dammit, she wasn’t about to be forgotten or left out!

If she had thought a little further, she’d have realized that meant at some point all her furniture would have to be moved out into the hallway. All her clothes boxes and bagged, all the food in the refrigerator boxed in coolers as well. All her pictures taken off the walls (the manager’s office insisted) and all the phones and the TV disconnected and moved also into the hall.

She didn’t think about that. Or the fact that this would disrupt everyone else on her end of the building, since they would be stuck in their apartments unable to access the hallway until all of mum’s stuff was returned to her apartment. Nor did anyone think about the fact that since all her belongings would be in the hallway overnight, then someone would need to stay with her items so nothing got stolen. Also no one gave a thought to where mum would be sleeping since her bed had to be moved into the same hallway.

As luck would have it, she recalled all of these things the day before the people came to install her new carpet and tile.

Oh, and I think I forgot to mention that the smell of the carpet glue is intense. The noxious stuff hangs in the air for like a week, burning your eyes, stealing your breath and making you dizzy.
I tried to impress on mum how much effort and work would be involved in getting her wish, but my comments were dismissed. ::sigh::

As you might expect, it was nothing short of a fiasco. LOL.

Of course, it’s hard to think through any consequences or possible problems when someone is giving you your wish, even one as simple as new carpeting and tile.