CHANGING PERSPECTIVES: One day at a time
I lost my mother a little over a year ago to a multitude of escalating health issues in a relatively short span of time at the age of 76. In the last few months of her life, she displayed all the classic signs of mental withdrawal and rapid physical decline; gently preparing us, her children, for her departure. But despite best prep, you can never fathom what it would be like to live without your mom. And sadly now I do - and this worries me no end for my own kids. It's not the grief of losing a parent I am worried about. Even though I miss my mother terribly, I do understand it was her time to go, she was ready to as well. Barely able to, she whispered 'let me go' to my sister who was attending to her the day before she died. No, death and the cascading grief that follows does not worry me as much as the loss of the voice of reason. Because that's what I lost with my mothers demise. The voice of reason and sanity in my life. The bandaid to all my scrapes a...