Today started with a surprise phone call from Betsy. Betsy is my sister-in-law who has taken on the part-time job of driving my mom to appointments, the library, the grocery store etc. every week. She lives 15 minutes from my 88-year-old mother Ginny and my mother adores her. She’s been our godsend for about two … More Is It Time Now? A Story About Decision-Making for an Aging Parent
November, 2018 As I shop for holiday presents this year for my 88-year-old mother Ginny, I’m thinking differently. In the past, I have always gotten her a personal gift like jewelry or a new shirt, as well as a gift card so she can pick something out for herself. She has an eye for fashion … More An Aging Parent Gift: A Holiday Tail
I was online one morning, when I came across an interesting article titled “Handling Controlling Elderly Parents.” “Ha!” I thought half-jokingly. “Here’s my breakthrough guide to fix all of my control issues with my 89-year-old mother Ginny.” Very quickly, however, I wasn’t laughing. I was thinking. Hard. With some parents, an overly critical, authoritarian parenting … More Sudden Insights: Finding Mother-Daughter Answers
In my last story, I shared how my mother Ginny’s best friend had given her an unexpected inheritance gift. She should be receiving that gift soon, and we remain grateful. It’s important, however, that we are responsible about how to manage the gift and dig into information regarding cash assets and how they relate, in … More Figuring Out VA Benefits and an Inheritance: Our Story
Since the launch of my blog, I have been asked a few times “why did you choose Leaving The Door Open for the site name?” For me, it fell neatly into a few categories. First, I wanted a well-known phrase for readers. It was possible it would be easier to remember and I was also … More Why There’s a Story Inside the Site Name
I was visiting my 88-year-old mother Ginny one rainy afternoon and was doing her laundry. As I waited for two loads to go through the washer and dryer, and the storm continued outside, I decided to ask her an old question I had always been curious about. I was familiar with her childhood and being … More How To Hold Onto An Aging Parent’s Favorite Stories
My recent mistake with the cable company is back to haunt me. They are switching to a digital signal and all customers need new converter boxes before the deadline. This includes my 88-year-old mother. During a past visit, I had brought the wrong box (previous post) back from their sales office to hook up to … More Clearwater, We Have a Problem
This post is a little different as I’m stepping outside of the larger story to move my legs a bit and share my hopeful intent. As you’ve read, I am living day-to-day with helping my elderly mom. I’m definitely in the thick of it. Somewhere in there, I wanted to write it down. It started … More Sharing It Forward
Herman Wouk. Ken Follett. David Baldacci. Barack Obama. What do these authors have in common? They have all kept my elderly mother Ginny company at one time or another. Books have been Ginny’s go-to hobby for as long as I can remember. She really is a bookworm. She’ll check out three or four books at … More Mom, Puzzles and a Little Peace of Mind
I’ve been thinking about Ginny’s future over the last week. Sometimes, she enters my thoughts as I’m fading towards sleep and sometimes she is my first thought of the day. Sometimes, I lay awake. So far, she has not exhibited additional dementia-type symptoms, so that’s significant, but a return of vertigo always looms. Plus, given … More Shades of Change III
