Parenting Takes on Many Meanings

Many times my mom sat by my bed when I didn’t feel well.  She took my temperature, put cool cloths on my forehead, read and sang to me.  When I was feeling better, but still too ill to attend school, I lay on the couch in our farmhouse kitchen while Mother worked, but was near.

Then our roles were reversed, and I cared for Mother as she developed Alzheimer’s.  I remember sitting beside her bed in the nursing home after she broke her hip.  Mother seemed to become very depressed at that time and was confused about many things . As I sat there, I’d get the sense she didn’t want to make the effort to go on.  So I’d read and talk to her, write letters and nap, too.  I maintained this vigil almost daily for a couple of weeks.

Gradually Mother began to take an interest in her surroundings again as her hip healed. There’s a good chance she was in pain in the early days but couldn’t tell us. She never walked again, but lived eight more years to give us joy and love and be a part of our lives.