Jul. 25, 2003 - 22:15 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Hard To Talk

We grieve for those of us who expire and are gently put in their final resting place. That is part of life, and eventually we manage to put one foot in front of the other and get our life on even keel once more.

But there are those of us who have been going through the grief of seeing loved ones wasting away in hospital or nursing home, not quite in a terminal condition but on the edge you might say.

We have three kin who are pretty well in such a condition and have been visiting two of them in a nursing home for several years, our brother in law is near 90 and Heather's sister is just a year or two younger. She has Alzheimer's and he recently broke his hip, bone knitted but he seems to have lost his will to ry to become ambulant. Heather's other brother is in another nursing home and seems to have lost the will to do much of anything. He is the one that Heather and I have spent a lot of time visiting at his home for, I think, over a year. After a recent power outage his son came by and found his father unconscious on the floor. 24/7 care needed now for him.

So, here I am past 82 this past April, crippled and with a funny ticker, knowing I don't have an unlimited time to keep going. I worry about Heather's welfare also. But, we both manage to enjoy life amid the hulabaloo of existence and plan to enjoy every step of the way and having fun with great grand kids and happily relating to their parents on a grand adult level. So, what more could we ask ? Not much, I guess -- but sometimes it is Hard To Talk . . . . . . . . .

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