Full Circle
Today I experienced Motherhood at 76. I visited my mom in the nursing home where she is recovering from a broken hip and hopefully will be returning home sometime this week. So, today the roles were sort of reversed. I took care of her and I was thinking this is how she probably took care of me when I was younger. I had to convince her to eat the lunch that they provided for her. Even though she complained that she didn't like the food because it was bland and tasteless, almost like I used to complain about not wanting to eat my vegetables when I was younger, I did manage to bribe her to take a few bites promising her dessert later. Yes, just like she used to do to me sometimes but her dessert was something like custard with a crust not appealing to me or her but nonetheless she managed to scarf down a few tiny bites before she said she had had enough. She also had enough of the bland ice tea that they served with it so I gave her some sprite instead which they said she could have. Hot sprite beats bland ice tea any day in her book.
So, as my son was helping her manage the sprite, holding the straw in place for her and telling her to take tiny sips at a time I sat there and thought back to all the times I had told him the same exact thing when he was sick, which thank goodness was not that often, and now he was telling her and helping her when she is sick. He was also hovering like a "daddy bird" around her and wouldn't let her lift a muscle to do anything and was getting nervous when she tried to lean a little too forward in the wheel chair which she said was the most uncomfortable chair she had ever had the misfortune of sitting in. My son tested that out when she got back in bed for a short nap. He thought it was an awesome chair because it had wheels, that was no surprise to me.
I watched these two for a long time today, just watching and observing and thinking and by the time lunch was done and meds were taken and my mom was trying to rest in the mists of all the yelling in the halls, loud conversations, alarms going off, one of them hers, and all the hustle and bustle of these places, I came to realize that motherhood for me has come full circle. I was a mom at 41 and my mom was a mom at 26. Since I don't have a daughter, I won't be able to watch her be a mom but I think that my son will make a darn good parent some day.
So, as my son was helping her manage the sprite, holding the straw in place for her and telling her to take tiny sips at a time I sat there and thought back to all the times I had told him the same exact thing when he was sick, which thank goodness was not that often, and now he was telling her and helping her when she is sick. He was also hovering like a "daddy bird" around her and wouldn't let her lift a muscle to do anything and was getting nervous when she tried to lean a little too forward in the wheel chair which she said was the most uncomfortable chair she had ever had the misfortune of sitting in. My son tested that out when she got back in bed for a short nap. He thought it was an awesome chair because it had wheels, that was no surprise to me.
I watched these two for a long time today, just watching and observing and thinking and by the time lunch was done and meds were taken and my mom was trying to rest in the mists of all the yelling in the halls, loud conversations, alarms going off, one of them hers, and all the hustle and bustle of these places, I came to realize that motherhood for me has come full circle. I was a mom at 41 and my mom was a mom at 26. Since I don't have a daughter, I won't be able to watch her be a mom but I think that my son will make a darn good parent some day.
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