Sunday, May 3, 2009

Update on My Mother-in-Love


I have waited for this day to come for such a long time, it has rained for weeks. Spring has finally found its way to our area this past week, and I savored my time outdoors in the sunshine, the temperature finally reached 90° for a few days.

I took advantage of it, and spent an hour relaxing on the riding mower while cutting the lawn. I enjoy doing this task. I had a lot on my mind and needed some alone time to think. Plus there is something gratifying about seeing the end results of your work in the neat straight lines cut in the grass, and beautiful flowers blooming across the yard.

As I was zooming across the backyard on the mower, I thought about my sweet mother-in-love (law) who always enjoyed sitting on the deck and watching me. She always reminds me that she loved the smell of fresh cut grass.

I wonder if she will ever get the opportunity to smell fresh cut grass again.

Mom is still in the rehab center undergoing physical and speech therapy due to her recent stroke three weeks ago. Unexpectedly, her health has rapidly declined she is very frail at only 90 lbs.

We were told by her doctors that she is no longer physically able to do the therapy, and will need to go into hospice care somewhere very soon. They believe she only has a matter of a few days or weeks left. This was painful for us to hear this news, and breaks our hearts.

We are selfish and are not ready to give her up, and we’ve all decided we want to bring mom back home. This is the one place where she was the happiest and at peace. Mom lives with us, (independently) in an in-law suite that is attached to our home. She loves spending her time with her cat, putting puzzles together or quietly sitting in her chair looking at her family photographs. She also she enjoys looking out her large bay window, or slider glass door across the deck to see her bird houses, and enjoys the squirrels playing in the yard. This is where she belongs.

Lately mom has been sleeping day and night, and hasn’t always recognized us, and sometimes she thinks that we are someone different from her past, people that we do not know. She refuses to eat most of the time, and has been in a great deal of pain from her arthritis in her hip and leg.

Today was a good day as she ate plus she even remembered us. We actually had a nice conversation and she was fully aware of her surroundings.

We took her outside in a wheelchair yesterday to feel the warmth of the sunshine and she gave us a beautiful little smile, and after 10 minutes she asked to be put back into her bed. It was too much for her, she is so weak.

We’re just hoping for as many good days as we can possibly get with her and pray for her daily.

She is more than just a mother in law she is one of my very best friends, and a faithful prayer partner.

I thank God for allowing me to be a part of this special ladies life.

2 comments:

  1. Debi, I'm sorry about your Mother In Law. It's hard to see the ones that we love get frail and begin to fade. I hope that she will rally and have more days in the sunshine.

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  2. Life is truly like the seasons, and they change and change ...some days are warm and sunny, and some are cold and wet, yet each one makes up a season. God gives us balance, in the joy of birth, and the saddness of death. He gives us a time to grieve, and a time to rejoice. When the time is right, he'll call each and everyone of us home, to be part of his choir, and we'll leave behind people we love, and feel sad - and we'll be welcomed by past loves, and feel joy. Trust in his love for you, and his love for Eric, and for Eric's mom, and know that whatever path lies in front of you, it's not the end ...but just the beginning.

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