Friday, December 23, 2005

Getting older

Dad and I went to a birthday party for a friend of mine yesterday. She's the baby in the crowd, and she just turned 30. It was a great party; the friend who organized it did a wonderful job of it.

As I've watched him on this visit and on the trip at Thanksgiving, it is very obvious that Dad is really aging and slowing down. However, I've decided that -- as much as watching aprents age stinks -- it beats the alternative. In other words, I'm really missing Mum at this point. While she wasn't into tacky/showy displays for Chrsitmas, she did love the lights and the baking and the family visits and the choosing just the right present for the people she bought presents for and the........ In some ways, this last year has flown by, with the new job and looking after Dad, but in other ways it seems like forever since she died. Dad hasn't gotten around to changing the message on the voice mail (one of many things, along with email, navigating, and keeping track of extended family, that was Mum's department), so when he's not home or he's on the computer and I call, I still get her voice. Sometimes that's comforting, to hear her, but mostly it just hurts.

But, given the realities of life like people dying too young from cancer (and if you don't know the symptoms of ovarian canver, learn them, as knowing them might help you or someone you know catch it early when the chances of successful treatment are much higher than at the more advanced stages), I'm in better mental/emotional health than I expected to be at this point ;-)
So we plod along.........

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