To MFASRF: Wow! Sorry to hear about your dad's broken hip!
    Must be something in the "air" affecting old people. I'm glad he has family to look after him, and especially glad he has someone new to whom to tell his stories. Actually, the story about he and his companion, the country "from sea to shining sea" and a '32 Chevy with a rumble seat sounds interesting; although I know what it's like to hear those stories over and over. Reminds me of my grandfather on my mother's side. He had plenty of stories to tell, too. I'd heard them all, when we visited them in the states on vacation every three years ad infinitum, by the time I was between the 6th and 7th grade. He'd always begin with, "Stop me if you've heard this one..."
    That year, I had the temerity to take him seriously.
    His reply? "Well, you're going to hear it again!"
    I actually like my mother's stories, despite hearing them a lot. Occasionally she comes up with a new one; sometimes she forgets I am her daughter and I'm featured in one that occurred long before I was born. I only correct her perception of me having been "there" if she forgets details and asks me to provide them, although, sometimes, I know the details she can't remember. What I like most about hearing her stories, now, is that she seems to be reliving them, and she had many, many life episodes that would be entertaining to relive. Her sleep dreams, too, now, (which she remembers much better and much more often than I remember my dreams) are also interesting. Nothing happens in them, anymore. She just visits with people she used to know and catches up on their lives (even though most of them are dead), or eats her favorite foods (she eats lots of pancakes in her dreams, I've noticed).
    I hope your father mends well. Broken hips can be a bitch at that age. My mother's lucky that hasn't happened to her.
    Catch up on your life and when you think you've got hold of it again let me know how you, and your dad, are doing. I'll be here, my mother's Morpheus, trying to rock her smoothly enough so she has only pancake-sweet dreams.
- posted by gail rae @ 23:05   email...this post