Vera

Today I'm thinking a lot about my Mother-in-law, Vera. She has lived close by us all our married life.(almost 35 years) The last 10, well maybe 15 years have been tough for her. (since Dad has been gone.) She has had a lot of health issues. I don't know if I should start naming them, but here goes: 1st she had Ovarian Cancer and went throught the Chemo and a surgery and all that. Then she had a few falls, broke her hip, broke her arm, and re-broke her arm. She had to finally just let the arm hang w/a brace on it, because they couldn't fix it. So the mobility in using her Rt. arm was limited. Which seemed to lead to other things......because her bones are very, very fragile. She had the terrible fall at the church a few years ago that really put her down. She broke a lot of bones and was never able to get up and walk after that. So we had to put her in a Nursing Home. She has always seemed to have a chronic bladder infection and now I think it is getting the best of her. Her immune system is down and the infection has caused a high fever which has caused her whole body to be affected. She is now in the Wenatchee Hospital on some strong Antibiotics. Hard to tell if she will pull through this our not. She has been delirious and disoriented. Not really knowing what is going on. It is hard for us to see, but we know that she has lived a great life and if it is to come that she passes, so be it. She is 89 and her quality of life hasn't been very good for quite awhile now. Everytime I took her to church on Sundays she was always so upset that she couldn't see or hear well. She had macular degeneration and hearing problems that couldn't be fixed. I love her very much, but I've felt so bad for her for so long. It's hard to see your loved ones suffer and there's not much you can do about it. You try to visit them, take them to family functions, buy things at Wal-mart that they need, take them out to dinner and to your home for dinner. But trying to keep them in your home and taking care of them is a full-time job. It's very hard and all of us in the Adams' Family tried this before we realized it wouldn't work. So this is why I'm feeling such mixed emotion today. You never feel like you've done enough, but you have to come to peace with it. You have to realize that you've done the best you could do for the situation. I just re-read this post and it hit me that I didn't say the most important thing. That Vera was the best mom-in-law I could have had. She really is and was a very, very sweet lady. Never judged us and anyone else much for that matter. Everyone loved her. She was indeed, kind and sweet to all. She cared so much for her family. She was always wanting to know how everyone was doing and what they were up to. I feel so blessed to have been a part of her life.