I am moving

[slightlv]

34. Mom had to go to a Memory Care Unit a few months ago.

At the time, she knew she needed it. On her good days, she still knows it. But she's a handful. She's one of those who got real mean as they got older and had memory problems. I had her living with us for a year; had hoped to keep it that way 'til she passed on. But she weighs about double me, and if she ended up on the floor we couldn't get her back up. She was insistent something was wrong with her heart, tho it's in better shape than mine! And she kept calling 911 without us knowing it.

It finally got to be too much... and then one night I saw her look at my husband and knew there was no recognition of who he was. That scared the crap out of me, and I knew it was just going to get worse. She needed to be around people who knew how to work with her, so Sis and I found a decent place about 45 minutes from my house. Unfortunately, it's out in the woods, as far as I'm concerned and I haven't been able to find her by myself since. I'm at the mercy of my daughter or my sister to get out to see her.

Frankly, I wouldn't mind an assisted living place myself. I need help now in keeping up the house, etc. And my lupus will put me down for days on end sometimes. But I've rescued critters all my life, and I'm not going to leave them in the lurch now. My youngest cats are about 3 years old; my oldest are 20 and 22. I plan on being around to bury the last of them. After that, I doubt I'll really much care what happens to me. They've been my life and reason for living. So, until they start allowing us to bring menageries, the house will just have to stay presentable on the surface and maybe I can find help down the line. My daughter is moving back up this way, so there's some hope there for help when I need it. I just find it so odd to be in this position! I always knew I'd grow older; I just never knew it was gonna be like this! (LOL)

Now... if we could find that old hippie commune Ariadne mentioned, I'd be there in a flat minute! THEY would welcome the menageries and us weird, odd, eccentric flower children of old, I'm sure! Maybe a bunch of us ought to see about buying a one level motel and turning it into an "old folks" commune? Ahhhh... if only to be that rich!!!