The Beauty of My Mother

Mom getting with the program in rehab exercise class

Mom was doing a bit better today. But I don't want to jinx it and tell you all about it quite yet. Besides, it could all slide back pear shaped tomorrow.

OK, here's a little bit - my Facebook status update from today (since I already shared this it can't increase the jinx effect, right?):

But since that's not quite enough for a post, I though I'd supplement it with a little picture show of my mother through the years.

She's looking so dreadful right now; old and worn out and the absolute worst she has ever seemed. (Losing 11 pounds in as many days, and being in near constant discomfort does nothing good for either the body or soul.) So I can't post any pictures of her face in recent days, it's not how she'd want to be seen.

So here are some lovely images of her from the past, both recent and distant. A reminder of the beauty she has always been:

Mom as a five year old flower girl at an Aunt's wedding, 1927

Mom in her early 20s, in the 1940s.  Hubba, hubba!

Mom and me, 1960 (A copy of this sits by her hospital bedside.)

Me, Mom, & Grandma Dunia (her mom), 1974

Mom & Dad on vacation in Jamaica, 1984

Visiting grandbabies in Florida, March 2003

Mom & Dad, March 2006

Mom's birthday, September, 2009

Thanksgiving 2010

Chanukah, 2010

Taking Mom out for a hot cocoa, Fall 2011

Rachel visiting with Mom, February, 2012

Me and Mom on Mother's Day, 2012, just before the fall

Looking at these as a progression, I can so clearly see a definite dip in her spirit, her liveliness between the last two photos. Even though they were only take a few months apart, she looks years older in the last one.

I had noted her decline on Mother's Day, slipping even from when I had seen her just the week before. I had lined up all sorts of doctor visits for that last week in May, in fact. But then she fell. And it has been downhill ever since.

Looking for a direction change soon. (Kuna hura. Or k'neina horah, or however you want to spell it, it's Yiddish for... warding off the evil eye. Not that I'm superstitious or anything. But it just can't hurt, ya know?)