“The glory of the elderly is their insight, their knowledge, and their wisdom.”
Lailah Gifty Akita
Probably the best time in my life was when mum was old and I became her primary caregiver when I lived with her particularly over the last few years.
Then when she had to many falls and needed more professional care my brother moved her to a nursing home in Sydney.
While she was in Sydney during covid in the last year and a bit I flew to Sydney eight times I think and stayed in backpackers in the CBD and would take the bus from Wynyard to Mona Vale daily and sit and talk with mum mainly reminiscing about all the good times in our life particularly around our many trips abroad separately.
My favourite thing to do when she was at home and in the nursing, home was to kiss her on the forehead and sometimes hold her hands and say, “I love you mum.”
“I have never been insecure, ever, about how I look, about what I want to do with myself. My mum told me to only ever do things for myself, not for others.”
Adele
I like this quote by Adele about how her mother’s love made her feel happy and have no insecurities but I have them particularly around my bald head and middle-aged paunch. So, I wish my mum was still around to guide me with my woes and insecurities. She passed gently in her sleep several years ago.
In conclusion I am particularly grateful to my brother Mark for loving mum and organising a lot of the practical things such as selling her house and before that renting it out to pay for her nursing home costs. I am also very grateful to all the nurses at the nursing home for taking such good care of mum and making her feel comfortable and loved. Also, these days I have some grandmother friends and even a great grandmother friend who often give me sage advice and they fill a big gap in my life replacing mum’s sage advice.
