Weighing Heavily

Blogging has taken a back seat over the last few weeks due to an inordinate amount of stress that has descended upon the house of KATcapers for various reasons which I won't bore you with.

Today is a short post to pay homage to a wonderful woman who is currently really unwell, lying in a hospital bed a very long way away in Canada and therefore out of reach of any sort of physical contact which we would dearly love to extend.

This lovely lady is my mother-in-law.  She was taken to hospital with pneumonia and has given us all a very bad scare.  Unfortunately even though her immediate prognosis is good now that the IV has been boosting her system with much needed drugs and sustenance, she is never again going to be the same women I have come to know as she is struggling with advancing Parkinson's.

In her wisdom she decided to not tell her son (Saint Mike) that she had been diagnosed.  Despite us suspecting that something wasn't quite right, she soldiered on far away avoiding Skype as much as she could. 

As the disease progressed, she has become noticeably frailer and shakier. 

Each time she visited us over the last few years we had seen age advancing and felt waves of guilt that she had to travel halfway round the world to see her son and grandchildren.

The last few days have been very distressing.  To know that the woman I have come to know for the past 17 years is now so disabled that she cannot feed, clothe, bathe or assist herself (and the pneumonia wasn't the start of this) is very sad. 

I can honestly say she has never had a bad word to say to me.  She has never been anything other than supportive and caring.  She has only shown anger in my midst ONCE and that was the evening we told her we were moving back to Australia (after spending almost 2 years in Canada trying to adjust to my homesickness).  She was like any mother - devastated at the thought of her son moving so far away. 

Did she hold it against me?  NO!  She has visited us countless times and never demanded anything of me.  She is the most unassuming, kind-hearted and gentle lady you could meet.  Her son adores her, her grandchildren have only fond memories of her visits and her daughter-in-law couldn't ask for a lovelier Monster-in-law!

I wish I could give her a big hug.  Instead, we've sent flowers and the girls are doing cards.  Saint Mike is allowing me to be irresponsible and insist that he gets on a plane to Canada asap....time is of the essence and getting home to be there for his mum in her hour of need is what he will want to remember...not waiting until she's even more debilitated or possibly no longer able to talk to him at all.

Ageing sucks.  Enough said.