Mom & Me Five Archive

    So far, two of my three sisters-and-partial-families (one brother-in-law; one nephew) are slated to be here to celebrate Mom's 90th birthday, which will be August 2nd. The up-and-coming birthday girl is very excited, even though festivities are more than a month away. Mom will, as well, at least "see" the other brother-in-law, who will be delivering the daughter-with-nephew up here on Mom's birthday, a fitting birthday present, so an impromptu dinner out might be in order on her actual birthday. I haven't heard about the daughter who "belongs" to that brother-in-law, but it seems that plans are loosely coalescing around the possibility of a birthday dinner on the Saturday, August 4th, following Mom's birthday. I know we won't see the local daughter and her kids during the week days; school and work will be in full swing for them (one's a teacher, one's a student). I'm figuring that some or all of them, though, will show up for the Mom's 90th birthday dinner on Saturday. I'm letting plans hang loose and allowing everyone else to make them, cooperate with one another and carry them out. I didn't even galvanize the plans, on purpose, so it's wonderful to see that everyone else is taking notice and acting to serve up a proper 90th birthday fiesta. From the Thursday of her birthday through the following Sunday, various and sundry daughter-relatives will be coming and going, so every day, including her birthday, will probably be a birthday celebration. Excellent! My mother believes that a person should celebrate a birth month...not just a birth day! Why take just one when there's 31 on the plate?!?
    I remember mentioning this to someone, although I can't remember who; I don't think it was here: Earlier this week, I accidentally referred to Mom's birthday as her hundredth when we were whipping up her excitement over the coming celebrations. Her reaction was funny: First she backed off, as if to say, "Honey, if this is 90, I'm not sure I want to see 100!" Then, I saw the glint of an idea in her eyes and she said, "Do you suppose we could get away with that?"
    After all, Hundredth birthday celebrations are surely 10 times better than 90th birthday celebrations. Everyone lives to be 90, now-a-days.
    A reading development that has surprised me...from insisting on reading Mothering Mother, I've jump started myself into the kind of reading I like best, having at least three books going at the same time. Let me take an informal count:

1. Taking notes out of To a Dancing God on expectation and noticing that I want to reread the entire book, so I am, sort of;
2. Reading (not in order) contents of the book Dementia Caregivers Share Their Stories. Mona wrote about the author and some of her impressions at her journal (the link will take you to the specific post) after having read the book. I am not accustomed to reading more than informal (make that, vaguely avocational) caregiver literature, so this is an interesting side path for me. Lots of highlighting and lots of notes in this one, folks. I expect I'll write about it at least as extensively as I wrote about Mothering Mother. Might even write the authors for permission to publish quotes. No telling where that will lead!
3. Mom and I have put aside two other unfinished books and started "Through a Narrow Gate" by Karen Armstrong. We have both been so impressed with her writing and scholarship in regard to religion and spirituality that I looked her books up at random and we chose two autobiographical books, of which this is one, that promise to be fascinating. This first one is about Karen's journey as a nun (she left the convent after 7 years). Both Mom and I have a fascination with nunnery and religious vocations in general. She's seen all the nun movies I've seen. We thought this would be a revealing read. So far, so good.
4. Today I will be picking up a copy of the short story collection containing the story upon which Away from Her was based; Alice Munro's The Bear Came Over the Mountain in the collection Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Love Marriage. Knowing how I am about short stories, I'll probably spend a couple hours reading selected short stories in the book. Besides, I feel in need of some good fiction, lately.

    Today, though, is, again, primarily an errand day. I'll be leaving soon to perform a few before Mom stirs. Then, we've got some stuff to do around the house and yard. Plus, we've got Pan's Labyrinth waiting in queue on the TV table. I know almost nothing about the film, so it'll be interesting for both of us. Oh, which reminds me, in case Karma is "watching" in on this post, we finally watched Volver a couple of months ago. Mom and I both loved the movie. I was astonished when I realized, at the end, that the movie had been about quite horrible events and repercussions, and yet there was such a startling feeling of resolution and peace. Mom became very involved in discussing whether the mother was a ghost or alive. It didn't talk about survival, it actually showed how survival and grace is possible in impossible circumstances. I loved, too, that it was produced to resemble an adult fairy tale. I think this is what hooked my Mom into it. It's production style reminded me of Chocolat.
    Off to see The Wizard...
    ...later.