You know that commercial on television for Life Alert that has an elderly woman on the floor who is unable to get her self off the floor? I have seen it and mocked it many times. Well this week it became a reality for my family. My mother will be 87 years old this year. She has always been a spry octogenarian. She has always been healthy. When she was younger in her sixties she walked five miles every day. Now she's older, she's cut back to just a mile everyday. My dad passed away about seven years ago and she still lives on her own. She is stubborn and says she doesn't need any help and refuses to use the life alert chain my sister purchased for her. Well this week she slipped in the bathroom and hit her head on the vanity. She required stitches and had many bumps and bruises.
You would think this experience would prove to her the need to wear her life alert chain but no she still refuses. "I'm not that old." she said. Well tomorrow I am going to visit with her and I am going to let her know the time has come. Now I don't always have the best track record when it comes to getting my mom to do things. But I will try and convince her just the same.
This incident has brought into sharp focus for me the need to visit my mom more frequently. From the time my twenty year old daughter was a week old until the time of my dad's passing seven years ago, I went to my parents house once a week with my children. After his passing I went down twice a week for a couple of years. Then I picked up my second job and was unable to visit that often because my schedule.
How often I wonder do we use over scheduling and stuff get in the way of family time. Now my mother and I haven't always been on the best of terms, and visiting hasn't always been pleasant. But now I have had a wake up call I will try and schedule a visit with her more often. Once a month can't kill me right?
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