Gift of Time

What if you couldn’t get yourself out of bed in the morning? What if you had to have someone get your clothes together and help you get dressed each day? What if you couldn’t get yourself from one place to the next? What if this was you and you still were able to think clearly and know everything that is going on around you? What if?

This is the situation that my mother is in, due to Parkinson’s she is in a wheelchair and can’t do much for herself these days. My mother retired from a very prominent position with the Dept of Public Health for the State of Michigan. She managed dozens of people over saw the well being of 100s of crippled children that needed assistance in one form or another. Her mind is as clear today even though her speech is becoming more slurred.

What do you give a woman that even the simplest things like brushing her teeth is a challenge. You give her the gift of time. Not time to sit around alone, but your time.

You give her the time to be around people even if she can only watch from the background; you take her home with you and have her soak her feet as you prepare to trim her toes. You put fresh finger nail polish on each week so she feels good. You sit and do a jigsaw puzzled with her and give her time to struggle with putting the pieces in even when you could do it faster.

Today we finished the puzzle we started at Christmas then headed off to see a movie, Alvin and the Chipmunks. Tomorrow I will take her to play bingo. All I can give my mom is my time and for now I will make the time.

Wal-Mart at Midnight

It is during the holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years that traditions become more apparent. There is the tradition of Turkey and all the trimmings for Thanksgiving, a tree trimmed with lights at Christmas, and College football on New Years Day. All of these are traditions that are observed by a number of us.

Then there are the traditions that each family has. My husband’s family has a number of traditions. Pecan pie, sweet potatoes and garlic mashed potatoes are a required at Thanksgiving. Christmas is celebrated on Christmas Eve starting with a lot of Swedish food, crab and pickled herring, followed up with some singing, piano and poems by the younger children and the evening is topped off with an early visit from Santa (red suit, beard and all). New Years day it is the annual College Bowl Game Extravaganza a little friendly wager going on about who can pick the most winners of the major bowl games.

In my family the traditions were less elaborate for us it was about having an early dinner at both Thanksgiving and Christmas so that we could clean the table off and start working on the biggest jigsaw puzzle we could afford. My sister and I have been known to stay up all night until it was finished except for the last piece. Somewhere during the day my dad would randomly pick a piece off the table and then put it in his pocket so he could put the last piece in. At Christmas we also had the tradition that Santa always brought socks. It started one year when there wasn’t a lot of money and we kids really needed socks. It was exciting to see that Santa knew what we needed. Even today my sisters and I all celebrate Christmas with our own families away from each other and Santa leaves socks at each house for everyone.

My other family recently started a tradition were all of us girls head out for a late night trip to Wal-Mart. It is more about being silly and out with each other, but we also end up buying a whole lot more than we planned. We top the night off by sitting and eating McDonald’s after midnight before we head home.

Traditions are what make the holidays special. Some traditions are forever; some come and go as the stages of our life change. But one thing for sure there will always be traditions.