Life does not correspond to timelines—mine or anyone’s. I was intending to finish off writing about the Town Meeting campaign in Pennsylvania, winter of ’78. But on February 12 of this year Linda and I got a call that changed our lives: “This is the Redlands Police Department. Your mother has run her car into a tree and we are taking her to Redlands Community Hospital Emergency.”
Mom’s car after arguing with a tree
So began a three-plus month interruption in my life story. My mother, Opal, at age 95, had two broken legs at the knees and a fractured neck. She was transferred to Arrowhead Regional trauma center where she underwent five hours of surgery followed by a couple of weeks back at Redlands Community and then a transfer to Asistencia Villa for skilled nursing care and physical therapy rehab. She remains there, struggling with persistent bacterial infections that slow her recovery progress.
Easter Brunch at Asistencia Villa
Mother’s Day 2012 at Asistencia Villa
We have been introduced to the California Medi-Cal system in an entirely new way. Since Mom has very limited assets, she has no way of covering the hundreds of thousands of dollars that her care is costing. We have been fortunate to be referred to an advocate who is helping us work through the process of getting Mom qualified for Medi-Cal. Meanwhile, we have had to transfer all of Mom’s assets to me as part of the process. She was actually planning to stop driving at the end of May. Did I mention that life does not correspond to timelines?
I don’t want to make excuses for my lapse into the realm of non-writing, but this was not the only impediment I encountered. We had begun a complete renovation of our little apartment in early February, which required moving out for at least three weeks, storing all of our furniture and belongings on our neighbor’s patio, and living in a friend’s apartment. Neither did all go as planned with this project. Just as the last of the hardwood flooring was laid a leak was discovered in the wall adjoining the bathroom and our new guest room. The flooring had to be completely ripped up and replaced, adding an additional two weeks to the completion date.
A third and final distraction was my son Rob’s two trips to the emergency room with a still undiagnosed condition but one which it seems he has since recovered from.
My conclusion is that life seems to present itself to us in “3’s” but I cannot guarantee this.
I hope to get back to my Journey of Awakening saga next week. Sometimes awakening happens even without the journey, even without the story. It just happens. That’s amazing!
