Category: Grandmothers

New England Family


Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; 

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day! 
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

– Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken

New England Family
Family Series
ShotByNess.
© 2019 RiverHouse Group of Caughdenoy, new YorK, LLC

NEWS: African Americans face greater risk of Alzheimer’s disease than whites

via African Americans face greater risk of Alzheimer’s disease than whites

I wonder whether the lower rates of Black Americans with dental insurance could be, at least, part of the reason for this.  Our previous post, We may finally know what causes Alzheimer’s – and how to stop it | New Scientist, if you aren’t sure what I’m talking about.

Just spitballing for now.

ShotByNess.

Memere

Alzheimer’s is a cruel disease.

Like a much loved jumper.

One that you have had forever, a security blanket.

Then one day, you notice that it’s beginning to get holes, that the buttons are falling off.

It doesn’t worry you at first because you expect it.

Then the loose threads appear, slowly at first, then gradually faster.

And even if you try and re-stitch them, you realise that your beloved jumper is Actually unravelling faster than you can repair it, that it is losing its shape, its form and eventually its purpose.

That all you have left is a pile of yarn – and you can’t find the beginning or the end.

Yet you know it is in there, somewhere…

Together, but apart.

– ‘The unravelling’ by Vivienne Anne Mackenzie Ward

Memere
Family Series
ShotByNess.
© 2019 RiverHouse Group of Caughdenoy, new YorK, LLC

 

Meeting the Baby

 

An Old Lady’s Poem

What do you see, nurses, what do you see?
What are you thinking when you’re looking at me?
A crabby old woman, not very wise,
Uncertain of habit, with faraway eyes?
Who dribbles her food and makes no reply
When you say in a loud voice, “I do wish you’d try!”
Who seems not to notice the things that you do,
And forever is losing a stocking or shoe…..
Who, resisting or not, lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding, the long day to fill….
Is that what you’re thinking? Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse; you’re not looking at me.

I’ll tell you who I am as I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, as I eat at your will.
I’m a small child of ten …with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters, who love one another.
A young girl of sixteen, with wings on her feet,
Dreaming that soon now a lover she’ll meet.
A bride soon at twenty — my heart gives a leap,
Remembering the vows that I promised to keep.
At twenty-five now, I have young of my own,
Who need me to guide and a secure happy home.
A woman of thirty, my young now grown fast,
Bound to each other with ties that should last.
At forty, my young sons have grown and are gone,
But my man’s beside me to see I don’t mourn.
At fifty once more, babies play round my knee,
Again we know children, my loved one and me.
Dark days are upon me, my husband is dead;
I look at the future, I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing young of their own,
And I think of the years and the love that I’ve known.

I’m now an old woman …and nature is cruel;
‘Tis jest to make old age look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles, grace and vigor depart,
There is now a stone where I once had a heart.
But inside this old carcass a young girl still dwells,
And now and again my battered heart swells.
I remember the joys, I remember the pain,
And I’m loving and living life over again.
I think of the years ….all too few, gone too fast,
And accept the stark fact that nothing can last.

So open your eyes, nurses, open and see,
…Not a crabby old woman; look closer …see ME

– Anonymous

Meeting the Baby
Relationships Series
ShotByNess.
© 2019 RiverHouse Group of Caughdenoy, new YorK, LLC