Mortality...

So previous posts included items about the female half of this team going to Victoria to "Granny sit"...MY 99yr old mother has been staying with the brother and sister-in-law, and when they go away, someone has to be there...Well, the classic has happened, and mother is in hospital having hip surgery after a fall. At 99, what are the chances under a general anaesthetic??? So I began remembering the life of this lady...three sons, born 7 years apart (think - depression, world war two, separating the births). And part of it was raising the first two on her own - the father being away for nearly 7 years in the war. Plus she coped with a crusty old father-in-law during the war years. I remember her coping with various crises - scraped knees, yrs truly on a run-away tricycle down a steep hill in Oak Bay, the older brother nearly severing a thumb chopping wood, the younger brother breaking an elbow, yrs truly nearly having his Achilles Tendon severed...how on Earth did she cope? I guess the way every parent copes - with love, a strong stomach and everlasting faith. Makes some of our worries look pretty trivial. Nevertheless, even though one expects the worst when a loved one is 99, the actuallity is hard to take.
One hopes for the best - but, at 99, there can be few regrets. Just think - she saw the development of better cars, the advent of jet flight, the development of computers and the internet..and I am sure I have missed a lot of what she experienced. She was beginning to plan what she wanted for her 100th next February. May she achieve that goal.