The Fate of Flowers.....
"If there were nothing else to trouble us, the fate of the flowers would make us sad. " John Lancaster Spalding It had been too long since I had visited my mother in the nursing home; each weekend I would make excuses to myself as to why I couldn't go... I was on vacation. I was recovering from vacation. School started. I was tired. It was too cloudy-windy-rainy-sunny outside. The reality is, it is difficult to see her trapped within her bed, listen to the litany of aches and pains that she mumbles as soon as I walk in, barely audible with her slurred post-stroke speech. I dread and cringe at the endless screeching of the old folks who have lost their minds and moan/cry/wail up and down the hallways of the home in their wheel chairs. I close the door as they try to barge into my mother's room when I am visiting, like zombies. I ache because they too were once vital. What precipitated the visit today was the call ...