The Holidays: When Joy and Loss Co-Mingle

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving visit with my younger son and his family. They flew in from Denver, and my son’s first child from a previous relationship, now a college sophomore who lives across the river in Indiana, came over as well. A special joy was seeing that no matter how many months the younger…

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Memories

My mom’s memorial service is happening two weeks from today. We’ve delayed celebrating her life for more than two years due to Covid. But she is never far from my mind or my heart, especially now as I help plan the service. After a dozen years of working closely with my dad as his executive…

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Still Missing My Mom on Mother’s Day

Lately, I’ve been thinking about whether you ever stop missing your mom after she’s died. My mom passed away in December of 2019, and I still miss her terribly. Even after dementia had robbed her of so much of who she was, I always wanted to call her, hear her voice, and tell her things…

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Missing My Mom on Mother’s Day

This is the first Mother’s Day when I haven’t gotten to shop for gifts and a card to send to my mom, and when I haven’t been able to talk to her. She died on December 9. After years of dementia, the quality of her life had deteriorated so much that it was a blessing…

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When an Elderly Parent Dies

My husband and I are at that age where if parents of our contemporaries haven’t yet passed away, they’re dying now. This past year, our sister-in-law’s parents both died, as did a dear friend’s mother. Saturday night, it was our turn. At age 93, my mother-in-law passed away. It wasn’t entirely unexpected. She’d been in…

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LAST STOP: THE MEMORY CARE UNIT

As my mother grew older, she regularly scoffed at the suggestion that she should consider purchasing nursing home insurance. Indeed, the thought of my powerhouse mom shut away in a long care facility seemed preposterous.

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Grieving

Forget all that “time to move on and heal our differences” stuff. Maybe I’ll get there, but after Tuesday’s stunning presidential election, I sure haven’t arrived at that place.

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