:: grateful for family ::

Nana & Papa resting after a long day.

I just returned from a trip back east.  My time there seemed to whiz by, it hardly felt like seven days.  Time seems to be doing that lately.  My kids are growing up too quickly, my parents are aging too quickly and I have found myself on the down-hill side of mid-life (unless I live to be 98).  Not that I'm feeling sorry for any of it.  I'm grateful for the time I have had with my parents and the love and support I have had, and continue to receive from each of them. I'm grateful for my siblings and our ability to support one another and how we are able work together to make our parents lives manageable. I'm grateful for the unending love & support of my husband and my two understanding boys.

This trip was not an easy one, dad is not well. He is in late stage Parkinson's and has been maintaining a hope that he can recover. This Friday he said to me: "Don't worry, honey, I've had a good life." This was the first time he's ever indicated to me - or anyone I know of - that he has some inkling that he will not get better.  The one week I spent with my parents, my father's state of being fluctuated so radically it was hard to keep track of and to manage my own expectations. What I know to be true right now is that he is in a safe place with his needs being taken care of while he waits to return home once my mother has recovered from her hip replacement.

Nana. Oh Nana. Picture Mighty Mouse flying through the sky To The Rescue, that's Nana. This week she's had to rescue herself from hip pain by way of hip replacement surgery. Her doctor believes she will be home by the end of the week - a mere ten days after having her left hip replaced. She really is Mighty Mouse. Wish I could be there to help them both through the next month or more.

Alas, there's no way for me to be in two places - 3,000 miles apart - at once. So here I am, back in California, taking care of myself and my boys. My heart is in two places but my body in one.