Another reason I chose to create this blog was because I received a phone call from my mother yesterday. She was stranded in the Kroger parking lot because her car won't start.
My parents have two cars: hers is a late 1990 model (maybe early 2000) of a Buick and a Ford truck. There used to be a company car, but that had to be returned when the company my Dad works for merged with another, and my Dad was lost in that shuffle (which is a story for another post, I suppose). There were a lot of casualities for my family in that merger as my sister voluntarily terminated her position as bookkeeper.
The Buick has seen its better days. It has dents and it runs ... when it feels like it. And yesterday, it didn't feel like it.
I was getting ready to teach my Psych of Aging class yesterday and I received the call from Mom. She needed to get AAA's phone number (thank goodness they have that service still) so she wanted me to look it up for her. After finding it on the computer, she said "Oh wait ... here it is. It is right here on the card." I had a feeling that would be where it was located, but I knew she was under some stress. She got off her cell phone to call them. She called me back. And called me back. And called me back. And I called her. Every time I asked her if she needed me to cancel my class and come out to get her. She said no.
All the while, I'm wondering what it is my Dad is doing that he can't come in and get her. Enter Selfish Meredith. Selfish Meredith has these thoughts. Unselfish Meredith struggled to come to the surface. Unselfish Meredith quenched the fire that Selfish Meredith started and I decided that there had to be a very good reason that she was calling me.
Then Selfish Meredith said "what about your sister? What is SHE doing about this? Because Meredith has a very part-time teaching gig ... that is why she gets called and the sister has a full-time newish job and that is why she isn't called." Shut up, Selfish.
My class started and all I was doing was showing a video. On Parkinson's. Specifically a story about one man's struggle with the disease, and how his three children handled handling him. Specifically one sister was left to tend to their father pretty much all on her own because she lived only two minutes from him *until she finally moved in with him*. Specifically the brother and other sister lived thousands of miles from the father. Specifically the caretaker sister loathed her siblings, and told them so in the documentary. A number of times.
My phone rang a few more times during the movie and I had to excuse myself from the room. Two of those calls came from two totally different cell phone numbers. My mother's cell phone had died because she desperately needs to get a new battery for it.
She finally called me back and left me a voicemail. She finally reached my father on his phone (thank goodness for one reliable phone!), and he was on his way in in "Big Red" to pick her up, so I didn't have to worry about getting her. I was actually packing my things up to go get her. She thanked me for being able to call me (enter Guilty Meredith).
Guilty Meredith then felt bad for spouting off to my boss about not "wanting" to enter this phase with my parents. Selfish Meredith had even uttered the unthinkable... how life would be so much easier if ... and you can insert that if there. Guilty Meredith begged God for forgiveness for uttering those words.
The fact that they have cars that they can't rely on really bothers me. However, my husband and I are not in any position, credit or financially-wise, to be able to help them with a reliable vehicle.
Enter my brother ... which is another post for another day.
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