I went home to visit my mom this past weekend. It wasn’t an extremely happy visit.
I had to take her to her MRI appointment on Friday afternoon. This was to give the neurologists something to work with for her upcoming Parkinson’s appointments. Hopefully they can get her on some drugs that will help because she isn’t in great shape.
She’s weak- moreso on one side than the other. She’s slow in movement. Mentally she still seems there, but her motor skills are declining. She has become very sedentary; basically lives in her recliner. She’s become reclusive and she doesn’t want to drive anymore.
I did a LOT of cleaning and purging this weekend.
I basically filled her huge garbage bin and her huge recycling bin. I went through her fridge and cupboards and got rid of old food and other crap that had been piling up. I recycled everything I could.
I also went through her closets and dressers. I took 5 full garbage bags to the Salvation Army (it was the closest one). Bags of old clothes, shoes, coats. There’s still much more to be done, but this was all I could get her to part with for now.
I took in her collection of 5¢ refund cans and bottles and cleaned out her car.
It was a busy weekend.
The worst part though was we had to discuss her finances and the potential of going to assisted care. I was a bit surprised by how bad her finances are. Not shocked, as her frivolity with money was a major contributing factor to the divorce. But she didn’t learn her lesson.
She remortgaged her house somewhere along the line and still owes about the same amount as the purchase price back in 1975. How do you do that?
And she’s run up credit card debt.
It looks like I’ll be using all my current savings to pay off her credit cards. I can’t do anything about her mortgage payments.
Sigh.
It wasn’t a great Mother’s Day.
Mangina Monologues 