For two month's worth of blogs, I’ve been telling the tale about setting up this room that my mom will be living in soon.
I say soon … it may still be many weeks until she actually gets here, because she has 9 cats we need to re-home! Traumatic for my sister and me, because how in the world are we going to get that done? And traumatic for mom, because those cats have been her sole companions for the last 2 years … how can she just up and leave them? For the three months since my dad died, her world has been turned upside down … being elderly and alone is not for the faint of heart!
Through the miracle that is my website, I have discovered that blogging is very therapeutic. Being able to blog about recent events in my life has been incredibly helpful, and I’m very grateful to my readers who have indulged me. I am still trying to process the miracle that began on March 7th and has continued to unfold for many weeks now … the miracle that has turned my world upside down.
Without going into too much detail, this is what happened …
My sister and I have been estranged from our parents for over forty years. They live only about 12 miles from us.
It’s a sad and bizarre tale that I won’t go into, but that was the backdrop for Monday, March 7th, when I got an email from a social worker at a local nursing home stating that my dad had passed away on Sunday, March 6th, and they wanted me to meet with them and my mom that very afternoon at the funeral home to make arrangements. It was another miracle from my website … I was very easy for strangers to find fast!
So after over four decades of zero communication, I found myself sitting next to my totally deaf mom making arrangements for my dad. The weeks since then have been incredible …
My sister and I have been able to just step in and get her business affairs settled and in order. Until we can remedy the cat situation and get her into our home, my sister and/or I visit with her daily.
Three to four days a week I get to go and sit at the kitchen table in the house I grew up in, and have the most incredible visits with my mom! And most of those days I have a happy cry all the way back home when it’s over!
It has been surreal, to say the least.
While my heart and head are still trying to process it all, my hands and feet have been scrambling to get the room ready. By the time you are reading this, it will be in place, ready and waiting.
I confess that I am a bit concerned over the cat situation, but then I remind myself of many past experiences with Him ... He's already got it worked out, and will walk us through it. My brain wants to fret, but my heart knows the truth ... He's got this!
So thank goodness for therapeutic blogs, and a gracious God who answers prayers in big ways and watches over lonely widows in their time of need. He is so kind, gracious and good and busy orchestrating our lives even when we're not aware ...
And, as Paul Harvey used to say, Now you know the rest of the story!
***A Mom Update***
As many of my blog readers know, these blogs get written in the previous month. When I wrote this last month, my sister and I were in a quandry over how to get mom out of that house ... but God sent us a strange miracle ... on July 8th, mom had a small stroke and was hospitalized for four days. All strokes are serious, but this one was indeed small and she is recovering well. But a miracle it was, because now we had a good reason -- and a doctor's backing! -- to not take her back to her house, and she is now safely at our house!
Then we had a second miracle ...my sister, with help from some experienced friends, managed in a single afternoon to get the cats rounded up and safely to the humane society where they all got vetted and are now mostly adopted out!
Mom is not happy, but then who would be ... she had a rough year before my dad died, and now her whole world has been left behind. But she does have an accepting attitude about it all, and it is a joy to have her back in my life!
Never think that God doesn't answer prayer.
And if you have elderly folks in your life, be gentle with them ... it is very painful to see your life winding down, and everything and everybody you ever knew slowly fade away ...
We moved her into an excellent assisted living close to us. And, because my father had wisdom beyond me, had purchased that home in Buckhead, the "ritzy" section of Atlanta and because this happened during the real estate boom we were able to sell her house in ONE day. The profits paid for her stay until her death with some left over. God is good!
Sometimes when you don't know how it's going to get done, those "miracles" come seemingly right out of nowhere ... but we know WHO's behind it all. He is amazing!
And weren't previous generations wiser with their money! We should all re-learn those valuable lessons!- Sherry A Mitcham
Thank you 😊