Grateful
Familiar Words
A few months ago, my mom’s friend’s son-in-law died. I had scheduled a Mass to be offered for his soul. It was today. I met our friend there and we prayed together. I recognized the Gospel reading: Mt 11:28-30Jesus said:“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. […]
Daughters In Law
I am grateful to have two amazing young women as part of the family. One is my older son’s wife of almost twenty-two years. The other is technically not yet a family member, but she will be marrying my younger son next year. The three of us had breakfast together this morning. During our conversations, […]
The Engagement
My son met an amazing young woman 2 1/2 years ago. From the beginning she has been a blessing in our lives. Once she became a licensed massage therapist, she came over every week to give my mom a soothing hand massage. Even when my mom wasn’t up to it, she would just come over […]
A Good Day
Adding on to the previous post. We spent the day yesterday reminiscing and remembering my mom. We worked on her obituary and a slideshow of her life. We went through hundreds of photos and listened to the recordings of her piano playing. While it was sad, it was also joyful as we realized what a […]
Family Time
My nephew arrived from out of town last night. He stayed with my son last night so they were able to have some time together before my son leaves for the weekend. My other son and his family returned yesterday from their time away on the East Coast. Tonight we all had dinner together. It […]
Graceful
Yesterday as we talked with nurses and caregivers about my mother, my brother used the word “graceful” to describe her. When I sat with her this morning, her items on the nightstand caught my eye. They included her reading glasses, her St. Padre Pio prayer book, and a prayer card with her name on it. […]
Blessed Connection
I was delighted to talk with a far away friend today. She and her family have been on mind and I pray for them often. Her husband passed away almost a year ago now, which was hard to believe. While our situations are different, the pain of suffering the loss of a loved is the […]
Quality Caregivers
We have struggled for months to get quality, caring, committed caregivers in the house to help care for my mom. Especially as her needs change and she continues to decline, this becomes harder and harder. It makes me hesitant to try new people, but it is necessary as I become more exhausted. Recently we hired […]
Don’t Beat Yourself Up
Due to our lack of sleep, we decided to hire overnight caregivers. The first one came a couple nights ago. At the same time, we discovered that my mom was in tremendous pain. We did everything we knew to do, but it didn’t seem to make any difference. I called the Hospice company who sent […]
A Break
I have been getting very little sleep lately and had pretty much hit the proverbially wall. Today I was grateful that my sister cared for my mom all day so I could have a break. I tried to nap, but slept less than I would have liked. I’m hoping sleep will come tonight. I Found […]
