Raising Mom

I went to lunch with a co-worker the other day and ran into an aquaintance who was eating lunch with her mother.  She is now taking care of both of her parents who are living with her.  Our neighbors behind us are an older mother and her grown daughter.  It would seem that we are returning to multi-generational homes!

When my mother's husband died in 2000 my brother, Troy, and I went up to Kansas City and fixed up their condo (it sold in three days!) and packed her up and moved her to Midland.  She moved into a house just down the alley from ours.  It was great to have her so close.  She would walk down the alley at 5am and stay with the kids, get them up and off to school for us.  Mike and I could never have helped get Kicks 99 off the ground without my mother being so close and so willing to watch Eric and Rachel at a moments notice!

At some point, Mike and I knew it was time to combine households with her, so we sold our home, had a great estate sale, added another master suite onto her home and moved in.  Less than a year later she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and we could never have taken care of her and her pets if we were not sharing a house.  I think it was God that spurred us into joining households.

Mike and the kids have had to be patient with both of us.  Rachel got a text from my mother one day when she was home alone with her that said  "fln on dwy hlp" or something to that effect and she ran through the house until she found mom on the driveway and took her in to bandage her up.  One day recently I was in the kitchen and mom walked in from the garage with a brand new axe that she had just bought!  Mike quickly jumped up to help with using the axe to chop out some roots out front.  When he handed it back to her he said "OK Lizzie Borden, here's your axe back!"  He knew an axe and my mom was not a good combination!

Mom taught Rachel how to drive so Rachel now drives like a very cautious old woman.  Not a bad thing for a teenager!!  And my mom taught ME everything.  How to be independant, how to think for myself, how to write.  She put me through college and has supported me in everything I have done.  We fight, we cry, we laugh, we take care of each other...we are a family.