Part of growing up is discovering that there are few absolutes in life. It's learning that the hard choices you make today based on the information you have available, can be the choices that with changing circumstances turn out to be horribly wrong. It's learning that the promises made yesterday with the best of intentions and deepest of love might have to be broken tomorrow. Not because the intentions or love have changed but because breaking those promises is now the best way to honor the intentions and love.
And so it has been with caring for Mother. Promises were made to Daddy regarding her care that now must be broken. The last few weeks have made it obvious that there is no way to keep her safe without putting her in a nursing facility. Goodness knows Bobbi and Jack (my sister and her husband) have tried. Jack has spent so many hours tending wounds from Mother's multiple falls that Bobbi noted he would have made a good doctor. I don't know about that, but I do know that he makes a great role model.
Choices now have to be made that are not based on what Mother wants or what was promised to Daddy, but rather on what needs to be done to keep Mother as safe and healthy as possible. And while I know what needs to be done and I understand that adults make the hard choices, a part of me really doesn't want to be an adult right now.
