My mom is still here with us. It'll be three weeks on Tuesday. She keeps saying she wants to go home. (We're not keeping her a prisoner or anything like that!) She's just not sure how to proceed anymore as an 85 year old in the world. I tell her she's lucky because her health is good, but she's not so sure. It's true that her body is 85 years old; and human skin, bones, and organs probably weren't designed to last this long. But she's basically very healthy. She wants to be back near her doctors, especially because her knee, which she had replaced in February, hurts. She also misses her townhouse and all of her life-long collected belongings. And, to be perfectly honest, Roger and I are boring. We're very quiet. I take pictures of everything that moves. Roger digs holes and plants things. We're not very entertaining. Still, we cook delicious, nutritious good food, and we're kind-hearted and loving even though we don't say much. (She was not feeling well in the above photo, but she is feeling much better now.)The weather has been so warm, it feels like we've leaped from a crazy long winter to a crazy early summer overnight. Temps are supposed to soar into the 80s by mid-week. We're tan already! On the downside, most of the very tender veggie and flower starts in our new little greenhouse have fried to a crisp. It wasn't supposed to get this hot so fast.
In other news, my birthday is coming. I'll be 59 on May 13th. Interestingly, I can't wait to turn 60. Not sure why, but it's a milestone I want to make. There's something about 60 that seems utterly mature, like I'll wake up and suddenly know what it means to be an adult. What do you think? Will I really grow up? I have a year and a few days to find out!
What a wonderful post and photo of your mom. My mom would have been 95 on April 30. She was 78 when she died and still seemed young. to me. It's still spring here, with the sound of frogs in the evening.
ReplyDeleteThat's how I felt about turning 60. Very exciting for you a year from now. I'll be 62 this year. Feels good.
I've forgotten what it's like to have a tan,
but not how good it felt to be 59 and walking in Yosemite Valley (-:
You? 60? I don't believe it. Well, maybe in a year I will. Let's have a party to celebrate!
ReplyDeleteI read in the Sac Bee today that a warming trend is on the way. Finally. Down in Santa Cruz Co. we are roasting. When I left Sac it was chilly and windy. So odd. No global warming effects, here, oh no.
Love to come up and spend some boring days with you. But I'll be armed with gazillion spf - no tanning for me anymore - my aging skin cannot take it!!
Our mothers sound rather alike. My mom would be bored out of her tree if she had to leave her own neighbourhood where she can drive all over to do her groceries, work in her garden, walk her dog, do housework, etc... She too has the collected objects of a lifetime in a house which was partly built by my dad. She will be 79 soon and has no plans to make any lifestyle changes, so I guess the thing to do is just help her to keep on keeping on.
ReplyDeleteThis morning, I'm in New Brunswick. On my way through the high country on the Quebec-New Brunswick border, I was surprised to find one of the big lakes still quite frozen and a lot of snow beneath the trees on the hillsides. Fortunately, as I came down into the St. John River valley, the temperature was warmer and should become even more so as I get closer to the ocean.
Happy early unbirthday to you, Robin. Sixty seems a good mile post. May it be a good year for you.
For some reason, I thought you were closer to my age. Ah well, enjoy your youth.
ReplyDeleteWe are still fighting to escape our winter. Frost a couple of days ago and still cool today. We have had a few warm days thrown in to remind us of what is to come but I expect to go hot weather too soon without much warm in between.
Aw, you are such a puppy yet. Don't know about the adult thing. I am still waiting and hope 80 brings it cause 70 hasn't though I do feel a wee bit closer. Are you sure "adult" is a good thing?
ReplyDeleteMy dear old dad would always quote the old comic strip Pogo regarding birthdays:"Before be 5, be 4." Don't rush it, time marches along inexorably, enjoy the current moments more. Like having a swell cake or pie or whatever on your birthday!
ReplyDeleteAh, our dear old parents. Maybe it's because I feel a bit of fearful frisson at one day being the "dear old parent" who needs help; It scares me but makes me want to help all the more.
Great post! 60 was a wonderful birthday----a real passage. In Japan it means a new life, a time where if apprenticed one becomes a master and signs his/her name to art works. Also, the symbol is the red dragonfly, meaning akatombo ( the same aka as in aka chan or baby). Anyway I just had a great 65. peace, m
ReplyDeletePS. What Mom wouldn't look even more gorgeous wrapped in such a beautiful and colorful quilt?
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday Month! Why limit celebrating life to one day?
ReplyDelete"There's something about 60 that seems utterly mature, like I'll wake up and suddenly know what it means to be an adult. What do you think? Will I really grow up?"
ReplyDelete"boring" is the ftw qualification...
glad the computer is better, and especially that mom's feeling better!
ReplyDeletei think it's hard for most of us to abandon the familiar, to leave behind some of our things, to give up routines, to start with new doctors, etc.
the harder part, i imagine, is giving up a hard-won sense of autonomy and independence. going from being in a place one chooses and creates, to feeling like a refugee seeking shelter in somebody else's life. (these are just my own thoughts, but the elders in my own family just hated the idea of leaving their own homes.)
I found 60 to be better than 59 and 61 better than 60 and ... Well, life just keeps getting better. Hope that's your experience also.
ReplyDeleteNope, thank goodness you won't grow up. (OK, I can only speak for myself.) Quite the opposite...your 60th birthday gives you permission to say and do what you wish again instead of constantly worrying about political correctness. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
ReplyDeleteHmm. Well, I haven't been 50 that long. So far I'm still SHOCKED at the petty physical betrayals.
ReplyDeleteI expect I'll get over it. But I don't know about that being grown-up business.
Good luck with your mom, whatever she chooses.
Happy incipient birthday!
On the one hand, I didn't like 60 because it seemed like I was officially old. On the other hand, I felt like wow, I got here and I have done all I really had to do in life. Now it's all whatever I want. I definitely felt lucky to get there as I knew too many who never did.
ReplyDeleteIt's hot down here in Tucson but my friends in Oregon say we haven't yet gotten more than a day here and there of what seemed like summer type weather.
Man, you're old. I won't be 59 until 2012. Plow the ground for me and get all the big rocks out of the way, okay?
ReplyDelete