The Writing Room: Write About My Aging Mother? I Don’t Think So . . .

By Barbara | June 5, 2010

Within a couple weeks of hip surgery, my mother was doing physical therapy at a skilled nursing facility. c 2010 B.F. Newhall

Barbara Falconer Newhall

Ten reasons why I’m finding it impossible to write about my 92-year-old mother, even though she’s all I can think about right now:

I love my mother, and I don’t know how to write about that.
My mother is difficult, and I don’t know how to write about that.
My brothers can read, and they know about this blog.
My mother can read. So can all six grandchildren.
My mother has osteoporosis, dementia and a messed-up stomach. She is losing herself, piece by piece, like dandelion feathers floating off in the wind, and I don’t want to think about that.
My father is dead. My in-laws, Scott and Ruth, are dead. If my mother dies, there will be no more grown-ups left in my life.
I don’t want to be the grown-up.
If my mother can die, anybody can die, me included.
If I write about my mother I might find out something about myself that I don’t want to know.
I’d rather grab a Clausthaler, curl up with the afghan that once belonged to my mother-in-law, and watch “House” re-runs. Except I’ve already watched every last one of them in the three months since my mother broke her hip.

Note: My mother died on December 18, 2010. I still don’t know how to write about her. One of these days I’ll figure it out.