Originally posted November 2006
I’ve talked about my father in these posts. He was certainly a great man, and I miss him tremendously. But, I think it is time to talk about my mother. Yes, I have one and she, is great. Putting aside her controlling, narcissistic personality and her unending chatter, she is a wonderfully strong woman.
My mother was born in March 1924, the 9th of 10 children. Her father was a cowboy (yes, a REAL one), a blacksmith, a store owner, a sorghum mill owner/operator and a dedicated beer drinker. Mother had more than her share of abuse during his drunken binges and attributes some of his anger toward her and a select few of her siblings to their dark hair, dark eyes and skin. The few that resembled my grandmother and the Native American side of the family were singled out to receive the brunt of the blows from this very large man.
My grandmother, Lizzie, on the other hand was saintly. Quiet, soft-spoken, and a devout Christian, she, too was a very strong woman who instilled values in her children that my grandfather lacked.
When my mother was 13 years old, she had appendicitis, the appendix ruptured and she was hospitalized. This was before modern antibiotics and my mother came very close to death, but by some miracle, she did survive. One of her memories of the hospital was the nurses dressed all in white. To her, they were beautiful angels. From that time, her mission in life and her dream was to become a nurse.
And she did.
After the death of my 20 year old brother, at the age of 42 years, she began nursing school with money from my grandfather’s estate. She thought it fitting that he should pay for her education at that time since he had always told her that she “would never amount to anything” and “wasn’t worth the salt that he put in his bread.”
[*Aside* My grandfather, the cowboy, forced the kids to work from the time they could carry a bucket and my mother and her siblings were only allowed to attend school for three months of the school year, and then only until they reached 9th grade. Consequently, my mother never graduated high school.]
She received her GED and enrolled in a Vocational Technical school’s nursing program. One year later, she passed the State Board with excellent scores as a Licensed Practical Nurse and soon began realizing her dream.
Both my brothers were born with one kidney each. No, they weren’t twins, they were born several years apart. And each died from renal failure. David, 20, in 1967, and Gary, 32, in 1985. My only sister died in 1987, at age 42 from a massive aortic aneurysm. So I am the only surviving child of this brood.
Mother was very “torn up” after David’s sudden death. She blamed everyone around her. Gary’s death was not so sudden, and my mother cared for him during the last six months of his life. She never left him, for any reason, and during his last hospital stay of two months, she stayed in his room, refusing to leave the hospital. I was there with them the last nights of his life. I saw the pain in their faces and the exhaustion of their bodies. Gary died June 17, 1985.
May1987. The remaining family members gathered at “the farm” for fellowship and dinner. That was the last time we saw my sister alive. She was admitted to the hospital for tests and died suddenly from an aneurysm.
My mother, after the deaths of three of her four children and a grandchild, has of course been affected emotionally and mentally by all this. But her rebounding spirit and dedication became evident when my father was diagnosed with cancer. Again, she took on the role of nurse and cared for him until he died.
She still insists that she can do most things on her own, or at least she was insistent until she broke her leg last Memorial Day weekend while working in her yard. After the surgery, her physician ordered that her leg be non-weight bearing for at least six months.
[*Aside* Being a child during the depression years and being poor most of her life, she has a tendency to "save" stuff. While she was still in the hospital, she gave me permission to "clean" her house. Boy, was THAT a mistake!! I'm still hearing about things that are missing.]
It was then MY turn to take on the role of nurse and provider. During summer session, I spent Thursdays through Sundays with her, cooking, cleaning and running hither and yon and decided right then and there that we could NOT live together.
She is a very independent spirit, a bit of a narcissist, fires a lot of sarcasm and is sometimes downright mean. But, I love her nonetheless and I visit more often but the visits are not as long. And yes, I am still “in trouble” and chastised for discarding things that she was saving in case of need by her or some acquaintance, and I sit there and take it. I’ll be damned if I talk back.
She’s my mother. I love her dearly we need each other.
So be it.
April 22, 2011 – Mother has been hospitalized since March 7, except for a ten day stint in a nursing home where her weight decreased and her health worsened. Each night, I wonder if it will be her last. Each day, I’m surprised to find her hanging on. She is just a shell of her former self and quite unlike my Mom. Her memories lie in the past and her body is pale and thin. She is depressed and she sleeps most of the day, hardly realizing that I am in the room with her. She seldom speaks, but when she does, her words are exact and specific when questioned. Usually, it is a solid NO, when I ask her to take another bite of food.
She is tired. She is sometimes in pain. Her mind doesn’t work like it used to and she must be prompted to open her mouth to take a bite of food or drink from a straw.
I’m sad. I am so very sad.
~K.
May 13, 2011
Mother died yesterday afternoon. She will be missed.