Happy Birthday Mom!
We’re having a little last day of Hanukkah, 73rd birthday celebration for mom here tonight, only she won’t be here. She refuses to leave the house with two teeth missing and the remnants of a black eye. We went over to her apartment today with a miniature chocolate cake that had 2009 written across it, three candles, a birthday card, ground beef because that’s all she says she can eat, four cans of Tecate, white lilies, and a box of Blue Frog chocolates.
We’re getting mom a new TV even though she needs teeth. The teeth part is much more complicated and is going to require calls and research to figure out what Medicare will pay for and who will do what.
73 years old and she is frail and flustered as if she were two decades older than she is – genetics? No indeed, my grandmother was sharp as a tack till she was 93. An ounce of prevention could have made this day different for my mom – she might be dressing up to go to brunch, headed over here this evening for a little party, or enjoying a nice warm swim in far off tropical waters.
Sadness is everywhere in my mother’s story and as harsh as I could be in judging it, the reality is that what she, like others, needs most is a little mercy now.