It feels like the world is turning at a rate of knots,
probably nots, depending on your age.
Is aging related to an increased
rotation of the earth?
Or is high drama responsible for me
the world spin?
In the past eight weeks
we've had domestic abuse,
pneumonia (finally learnt to spell
it),
hospital stays,
delirium (thought that went the way
of swooning),
poor behaviour,
police and detention,
restructuring and letting go,
lawyers and doctors,
storms and thunder and lightings,
new cars and over tight bras,
anaphylaxis and itching,
help from family and odd places,
a lack of help from places you'd
expect more from,
and some of that has been on repeat
cycle.
Which reminds me,
we need a new washing machine.
Some of the problems were straight
forward but
others were a riddle.
What is not old but is elderly,
independent but needs people,
loving but prickly,
forgetful and concise?
My mother.
Eight weeks ago now she called me
while I was in Wellington at the MIA*
conference.
Slightly busy and a very long way
away.
Her very small voice whimpered and
whispered that
she didn't want to be at her house
anymore.
As I scratched and itched hives,
realising this was a little unusual and urgent,
I called my Homeboy Husband who was conveniently
at work only a few streets away.
He popped over and took Mags home to
ours.
She had shrunk in her timidity.
She ended up staying at ours for a
month.
A month in which she got a nasty flu
we had
and turned it into dramatic, hospital
required pueumonia.
Before catching a ride in an
ambulance,
Mags had scared us with delirium and pretty much a cationic state.
Seriously the morning of the
ambulance call,
she looked like one of those Peruvian
mummies.
She was seriously dehydrated and
breathing high in her chest.
She has no memory of almost a month
of illness and recovery.
She sure as heck has no memory of
seven hours in A&E.
A&E is my new happy place.
It's somewhere I can relax cause
someone else is taking care of things.
I quite enjoyed those seven hours,
I ended up very relaxed and quite
happy.
There's a great deal of stress for
our whole family.
Each of us has had something extra
ordinary going on.
Then there's the communal craziness.
my lil'sister Pippapotomos came to visit from Brisbane.
She stripped wallpaper and slept in
then helped organise lawyers visits and Power of Attorneys for Mags,
which contrary to her believe can only be invoked when she is well away with the fairies.
My mother is not old but she is.
You can tell she is old because she is so stubborn about her now
and afraid of her future.
I remind myself that so many people go through this.
Sometimes I have to really remind myself of this.
