what's cooking?

This weekend will be bittersweet.  While I will be thrilled to have breakfast with my daughters and fellow moms, our son, my husband and all the grand kids-I can't help but notice that this will be my first Mother's Day without a mom.

The last 5+ years I haven't been able to be with my mom since we lived in another state, but I made sure to have my sister either buy her flowers, a new orchid plant or something else.  Of course, I'd call.

Now my dad's turning 89 on Tuesday and is in a memory care unit.  I tried to speak with him last week but that was a total failure.  He's in the "angry" stage of the grieving process plus he is not adjusting to life in his new place.  It must be so very scary to go from living in your home with your wife of over 60 years to spending your days with people you don't know, having a schedule you don't like and being encouraged to be with others who are "in the same boat".

It's very hard to know that he's going through so many emotions, forgetting for a time and then remembering the entire events (We think) of the day that changed all our lives forever.

For a person with Alzheimer's disease this must be something akin to the movie "50 First Dates".
Living in a particular moment and not remembering it the next morning.

Yes, this is a very different Mother's Day.  I will enjoy spending breakfast with the Arizona clan but it doesn't change the fact that it appears that I am now the eldest woman on my side of our extremely small family.  Weird.

May all of you be blessed to have your moms with you to celebrate, if you're a mom-pat yourself on the back!  No matter what, know that you have done the very best you could with what life was dealing out at that moment in time.  And gentlemen, just for this day-maybe you could do the cooking?