Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Facing Reality

As we get older, so do our parents. My father passed away almost 16 years ago. He was a young man, really, just 60 years old.
Today, my mother, in her mid 70's, was admitted to the hospital. She's not well, she has had some gastro related problems for the last few years. She will probably recover and be fine, her health is otherwise very good.
But as we go through life we see ourselves as someone, often in relation to others. I am the farmer's wife, or Shauna's mother, or Nick's sister and I am my mother's daughter. I was my daddy's little girl, even when I was 25 years old and living on my own. But once my father passed away, that role didn't exist anymore. For the first couple of years after my father's death, my brothers tried hard to continue to make me feel like daddy's little girl. As they married and had wives and children of their own, the roles changed again.
I became sister-in-law, aunt, godmother.
I don't think I'm ready yet to stop being my mother's daughter.

1 comment:

Betsy said...

Wow - you hit the nail right on the head...it really is the missing of our roles in life that makes us sad.

Sometimes, we would do anything to escape one of those roles just for a moment...and other times, we keep a lot on our shoulders just because we know that is our role.

Great post!

btw, I've linked you on my blog