Remember the day you announced you were getting married – you felt like such an adult. Such a grown up step – all the possibilities and the promise of a wonderful future. Along came the children. Wow! Diapers, responsible for another person. Surely I was an adult now. Add a mortgage, tuition for school, braces and your own business. You are running around like a crazy lady doing it all, baking for school functions, volunteering your time on the Board, taking the children to all their activities, and working on your own business from the garage . . . and then, then it happens. You get the call that your mother has fallen down the stairs. Everything stops. Fast forward . . . as you prepare the family room into a guest suite for your mother who is moving in while she recovers from a badly broken leg it hits you. Now I am an adult. I receive her with grace and open arms. She arrives with a wheel chair, a walker, a funky machine that moves her legs for hours on end, a small suitcase with a few clothes.
We are in a routine now, coffee comes first, morning exercises, lunch together on the deck in the warm sun (the joys of working from home!), the afternoon exercises. The children come home from school, join my mother for homework time, folding laundry, watching Jeopardy. Eating popcorn in her bed is ok because she’s a guest! Wine is served a little more frequently with dinner these days. We linger, we laugh, the kids are so engaging. I never thought becoming an adult was going to be so hard and so rewarding at the same time. I linger a little longer so I can tuck her into bed . . . “goodnight mom, sweet dreams”. Oh how Women Run in a full circle. I’ll keep running . . . and so should you!