My family is dealing with so many negative things right now that I could not even list all of them. A long time family friend died. We are having a bit of a financial crunch. Various family members are having health issues. My mother consumes most of my time and energy. The local and national news is depressing. Can someone please share some good news? Maybe others need to hear as well.
Even though my mother passed away on 2/22/22 of this year and I've had that loss to contend with, there have been blessings galore to celebrate as well. My first grandson (biological) will be turning 2 in a couple of months & my other grandson was accepted into the national gifted program here in Denver (at 5 years old, he's doing square roots and 'doubles' up to 1 million).
An attitude of gratitude will prevail in our lives forevermore, and we're grateful to God for all of our blessings in 2022 and look forward to all that await us in 2023.
You already have so much to be thankful for and I believe there is more to come.
@fawnby, I am so sorry you lost your son. My deepest condolences. I lost my youngest son over 20 years ago, Losing a child is the most painful loss.
My husband has been receiving good reports from his oncologist and urologist regarding the treatment of his prostate cancer. I am truly grateful for that.
I adore my husband. I think I fell in love with him the instant that I saw him. We were young when we first met.
He was the handsome bartender at a restaurant that I went to with my friends and a student at Tulane University. I arrived early to meet my friends for dinner and decided to order a drink from the bar. He asked me out for that Friday night and I said yes. The rest is history.
We love spending time with our daughters. They mean the world to us.
My condolences to all of you that has lost their loved ones. We miss them but we are fortunate that we are able to cherish our memories.
I don’t have grandchildren but I do have a beautiful granddog from my younger daughter and a cute grandkitties. from my older daughter.
Everyone is busy these days but it’s nice to spend time with family and friends. The best things in life are free.
So true. There are many lonely people in this world.
Some people are able to find friends who become like family to them. Others for whatever reasons don’t. It’s incredibly sad.
I visited my mom and dad, with my best friend sister, who was raised the same as me, taught to take care of ourselves, not enabled our whole lives. I hadn’t seen them since the BEST visit ever, outside in my garden, listening to the spring birds, on May 22nd. I never thought I wouldn’t see them again, until two days before Christmas. But this year, I had to let our two youngest sisters know, treating us respectfully and without attitude, was our boundary. They’ve been telling us their boundaries for years, while having zero respect for us older sisters. So I went silent. It was overdue, and it made a point.
Happily, my relationship with our caregiving sister has improved enough, that I will reach out, and visit our folks, every couple months. She insists we all use masks, for every visit, cause her covid fear is deep, and she is going to keep them safe for the rest of her life. We understand caution, but we also feel the older three sisters should be able to not use masks, just like the caregiver, but to ask would only result in a smirk, and, “nope, our doc says we must.” Good news, I am not going to let that stop me from visiting my folks, and I better understand now, visits are not easy. So it is ok to visit less, and not feel guilty. The sad thing is that mom doesn’t understand anyone with masks on, she hates them, so she will not talk, and she can no longer hear. A new thing, since spring, and it removed her from our visit, in a way that was sad. But until she could not hear what her caregiving daughter was saying, she said nothing about her hearing problem to us older sisters.
Our big sister guilt was tough to overcome, that we are not allowed to help our mom and dad, that they only want the daughter that has been with them for 49 plus years. She is their comfort person, not their oldest daughters, who are aging much more actively, than our parents chose, and that affected their life a great deal.
I tend to choose to be optimistic, and living one day at a time helps me immensely. I love my parents so much, miss them dearly, but the best news is that 2023 is going to be good, some tears will fall, but no more dwelling on guilt. I did nothing wrong. Doing my best, and renewed my commitment to my sister, that when you want and/or need help, you must let me know, cause I will not bother you with offers, just know “if I can help, I will”. We think she better appreciates my words, since I disappeared for a spell. She may be stressed, but she still must be nice. Take care, and I understand how hard this is. Not from a caregiver POV, but as a daughter that has watched her mom and dad slip away, and nothing I can do, to get them back. ♥️♥️♥️
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