“This is supposed to be the best time of my life – the nest is empty; but now Mom needs me.”

Moving Mom has been a lot of work, and trying to do everything from California has been difficult. We can tell from Mom’s actions that she is not doing well mentally – she is still seeing people in her house and truly believes they are living in her attic. Funny though, she doesn’t seem to be frightened by them. She is also hearing things – that is what seems to be frightening her the most because she thinks people are trying to break in. Mom is making more and more phone calls to her security department and they are spending a lot of time at her house. They have called me several times telling me that she needs to have some supervision and they can’t keep going to her house at all hours of the night for no reason. That was a little stressful!

Our plans to move her out here are still a month away and my husband and I just can’t get there any sooner. I talked with my sister and she and her husband agreed to go stay with her for a while to keep an eye on her before we move her – such a relief!  It’s difficult to imagine what my mom might be going through and it will certainly be interesting to see what my sister thinks when she arrives.

All I can think about is “what if Mom is in such bad shape she can’t move?”, “what if Mom doesn’t want to move?”, “what if everything falls apart?” And I thought planning the move was stressful – the next few weeks became my new stress.

What I Learned: Try not to do everything yourself – ask for help if you need it.