When life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, show life that you have a thousand reasons to smile. ~Author Unknown
For those of us who are baby boomers, whose parents are now elderly, I'm wondering how you are emotionally handling watching your mother or father age? My mother Beverly is eighty-six and has Alzheimer's. Mom now lives in Michigan near my sister and her family they are her caretakers. The photo above is a recent picture of mom and me taken a couple of weeks ago when I was visiting her at the assisted living facility.
It is sad seeing mom becoming frail and even harder leaving her to come home to Florida, where I live. I don't like to see my mom weak she had always been the strong one. She needs assistance to get around, she is very unsteady which is so sad because not that many years ago she was walking ten miles a day, she loved to walk. She also exercised daily, and played golf on a regular basis. But not anymore!
It's hard to believe that Alzheimer's was first discovered in 1906, and that not much has changed about the disease since then. Currently, at least 44 million people all over the world live with Alzheimer's in spite of the continued efforts through research to find a cure.
I miss having conversations with mom, like we used to. Now I have to remind her who I am. I can call her but she doesn't know it's me, her Bunny baby, as she called me. I will return to see mom again in September, and hold her hand, like I did when I was a small child because I needed her security. The truth is that I still need her security, but she doesn't know that anymore, but I know it, so I'll cling to her as long as I can.
LOVE YOU, MOM!
BUNNY BABY
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