ALMOST THERE

I am almost there! Tomorrow I go to the orthopedic doctor. I am hoping I can get this heavy boot off my foot! I am praying he gives me the okay to walk with out it and a walker. Well, I have been walking around the house without the walker! For a week. I feel more independent. I can carry a cup of coffee from the kitchen to my office walking and holding the cup in my hand. I can also carry two cups of coffee in both hands. Isn't that a grand thing? To me it is! I will never take things for granted again.

I want to write about my daughter Julie. I think this has made me appreciate more what she goes through on a daily basis. And has gone through for almost 30 years. But it has been slow, and she has had a mother pushing her all the way. Ha. All her life she has wanted to give up when it was too hard. Like when she took sewing in Homemaking in Jr. Hi. I would hear her in the bedroom trying to sew a skirt on my sewing machine. I say "hear her" because she would be yelling and crying and saying "I can't do this!" I came in the room and consoled her and tried to help her guide the needle through the cloth, as the tears flowed. She kept saying she wanted to give up. She passed Homemaking that year, but just barely. She never went near a sewing machine again.

And that is just one of the stories I have to tell about how I have been a pushy mother. I admit it. Let's say I am encourager. I don't want my children to ever give up on the dream they have.

In 1994, when Julie and Mike divorced, Julie and her caregiver Mickey moved into a little 2-bedroom apartment. Julie was still in a wheelchair, and Mickey was doing mostly everything for Julie, because that is what had always been done. I got Julie back into therapy, and told the therapists I knew Julie could walk. That was our goal, for Julie to walk. And Julie did walk. It was hard for Mickey to break old habits..she told me so. But she did. She wanted Julie to become independent too. 

Finally Julie bought a nice 3-bedroom, 2-bath home. Mickey moved to Georgia near our good friend Mildred, and started nursing school. Julie lived alone with a caregiver coming 4 hours a day.
The last 8 years Julie has lived with us....or I have lived with Julie for the last 5 years. She has a caregiver 5 days a week. But she has come so far.

Since I have been hurt and had be "disabled" with first a wheelchair and then a walker, Julie has been wanting to take care of me. She is always asking me if I want her to bring me something. Several times when I am sitting in my lounge chair watching TV, she comes in with some goody on her rolling tray for me to eat! If I say I need something from the kitchen and start to get up, she will say, "Don't get up, Mom. I will get it!" and before I can even move she has raised her electric lounge chair and stood up, and walked in the kitchen with her cane, slowly, I might say and got what I was going to get, bringing it back to me on her rolling tray

Last night she got up to go in the kitchen. I heard her and asked what she was doing. She said she wanted some Honey Nut Cheerios. She asked if I wanted some too. I said I did. She said she was just going to eat hers plain with no milk. But I wanted milk. She said okay. Later she came in rolling the tray, limping, and with the cereal box, a bottle of milk, two spoons and two bowls on the tray. She helped me pour the cereal in the bowl, I poured the milk, then she went back to her chair and poured the cereal into her bowl, then went back in the kitchen to put the milk back in the fridge, and cereal on the counter and pushed the rolling cart back in place. By the time she came back to the living room, (remember she is slow), I had already eaten most of my cereal.I had a warm feeling come over me, as I saw the look on her face, that she had accomplished something by herself.

I could see she was feeling so good about herself. You know when you help someone else, it makes you feel good. I think Julie is "paying it forward". And she always did have a compassionate heart.