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My mom is going to be 93 this November, and for the longest time she has been a caregiver to foster children, my paternal grandmother after a stroke, my maternal grandmother after dementia, my father with Parkinsons and of course all of her children (4).
Her health is not so good and she rarely leaves her home, and she still lives alone, but my sisters and I go all the time to see her and make sure that she is alright and to help her with whatever. When I was a small child, we gave up our home to go and live with my dad’s mother who had a stroke and my grandmother who only spoke Italian was not very nice to my mom or any of us kids, but my mom still wanted to help her. My mom’s mother, at the age of 80 came to live with my mother and father because she could not live alone anymore and my mom did not want to see her in a nursing home. When my mom had a slight stroke or heart attack (can’t remember which) she had to put my grandmother in a nursing home, and shortly thereafter, my grandmother died. When my dad retired, he was diagnosed with Parkinson and mom helped him for over 30 years until she tried to roll him over in bed with her head, and fractured her back. We then had to put him in a nursing home and shortly thereafter he died. I think my mother is one of the most caring people that I know, and I only hope that I am following in her footsteps.
My mom was constantly refinishing old furniture. Not so much out of love of the activity, but from necessity. We were a poor family, a couple of us were placed in foster homes at times to help the others survive. My mother worked outside the home when she could but also took pride in her house. Her furnishings, from various charitable sources was old, but mom would find time to strip and re-paint things. Most everything in the house would eventually be graced with mom’s touch.

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