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

Here’s a little back story on my mom:

She was 87 years old (at the time we realized she needed help) and had been living in her house for 35 years – 17 years without Dad. She stopped driving about 3 or 4 years ago and maybe got out once a week for groceries. She’s always been a bit of a recluse, sleeps during the day and stays up all night, and seems to have a problem with sunlight…. hmmm, maybe she’s part vampire? I’m pretty sure the mind starts playing tricks when you sit alone in the dark for long periods of time; that’s got to be bad for her, right? No wonder she’s seeing and hearing things.

Mom has been a vegetarian for about 20 years and has always been in good health. Unfortunately with not driving and having limited time at the grocery store when she did get there, she started buying items that were easy to grab and easy to make – soup! No wonder her energy level went down. The other thing Mom was never in tune with is exercise- she basically did none. But she did have some ancient exercise machine that she used “all the time“! Right……

What I Learned: My mom is not invincible like I thought, she needs someone to look after her now.