Mom's 81st Birthday And A Turn In The Road

My beautiful, wonderful, intelligent mom turned 81 two days ago. Unfortunately, she did it in a wheelchair barely able to speak, unable to walk. Two nights earlier she'd had some pain in the night. Maybe she fell, but how could she without anyone knowing and get up by herself? Was it a stroke? They don't think so. Perhaps it is just another step in her illness, a sudden decline rather than a gradual descent into immobility and inability to communicate. She's still trying though! Smiling and trying to make herself heard. Focus on her speech and force it out! Even talk on the phone with me a bit when I am not there. What a trooper. All I know is that I will miss her so much. Miss our long talks on the phone. Sometimes we talked for an hour. They got the residents their own line sometime after mom moved in. I liked to think we were responsible for it! :) What a beautiful mind and sense of humor. She is still there. That is the main thing. For how long I do not know. She still knows me and wants to talk with me and loves to hear me read to her and to especially tell her of our adventures! And my adventures out in the big world she loves so much. So, unless there's a change, my role will shift. Instead of living to be busted out of her confinement to explore the big wide world with me, I will bring the great big world to her!

Here is a picture of us taken at her birthday party: