I set all of my holiday chores up so that I wouldn’t have to go out to any more crowded shopping malls. Every time during the last two weeks when I took my mom out to get things she wanted, I asked her if she wanted any Christmas cards. She looked at the prices and didn’t want to pay them. She’s getting totally obsessive about not spending any money lately. (At 86 she should just go and get whatever she can afford; she’s not a pauper.)
So, today, she decided that she just had to have a box of Chrismas cards. When I hedged and reminded her that she had insisted on all those other shopping excursions that she didn’t, she got the saddest and most defeated look on her face. All I could think of was how powerless one becomes when one gets that old, doesn’t drive, has trouble walking, is getting cataracts etc. etc. If there’s one thing that I can’t abide it’s feeling powerless. And that’s one thing with which I empathize.
So, off we went to the mall, maneuvering through the steady stream of traffic that would stall for blocks at the traffice lights. But I did it and she got her cards. And I picked up something for b!X and some earrings for myself.