Oh, Mom

My mom begins her 99th year on Sunday.  It sort of blows my mind.  My mom is nearly 100 years old.  We are having a party because at this age, the surety of the next birthday is not there like it was at 60 or 70 or 80 or even 90.  All of her children will be there and a few of her grandchildren.  It is a life worth celebrating.  Mom wins the longevity prize.

We moved Mom to a different assisted living facility about 6 months ago.  I was aware of the problems of her former place and I wasn't very patient about the gaps in care.  Because Mom is having short term memory lapses, it is hard to be sure exactly all the problems in the last facility, but when I became sure that there were problems, we moved Mom. God was watching out for us because there is a flood between my house and Mom's former home.

The place we moved Mom is more expensive. But her room is bigger and nicer and the food is better.  Services come to her like the podiatrist instead of me endlessly running her to places and hoping that she won't refuse to go when I show up to get her.  The new place promised everything we wanted and more. Promises, promises.

Problems began to show up almost immediately.   There were plumbing problems and problems getting a phone installed to name a couple of things. When we pushed the emergency button and no one showed up for more than an hour, and when 2 complete sets of sheets disappeared, and when maroon pants showed up that didn't belong to or fit Mom and navy pants were missing and so on, it felt like we had been sold a bill of goods.  But what do we do, move mom yet again?  No.

This birthday weekend, besides celebrating Mom's birthday, my siblings and I will try to untangle the problems with her assisted living facility.  We will succeed.  In fact my sister has already laid the groundwork and things are moving in the right direction.  We have learned that we need to be vigilant. We need to patiently expect and remind them to do the things that they promised.

The thing that I wonder about is, what would someone do who didn't have children to try to straighten things out?  Mom can't advocate for herself anymore.  I wonder what I would do if I would live to 99.  I have hope that God will provide for me, just like Mom is cared for.  I talk to God about this, the problems of very old age.

Added--Mom had a wonderful birthday.  One of her former fifth grade students showed up at the party as well as a cousin we hadn't seen in a while.  There were great grandchildren and grandchildren.  One of her grandchildren is the chef who did the catering.