Mom visits Sterling House, a place she’d like to live.

By RuthAnn Hogue/Whiptail Publishing

I walked in on my mom telling one of my siblings this morning in her weepiest voice, “I don’t know if  [RuthAnn] cares about me anymore.”

I have no idea what was said on the other end of the line while I was waiting to tell mom her breakfast was ready and waiting. Once I did, she spoke into the phone words of endearment. “I love you. You’re the most special person.”

“Mom, do you really think I don’t care about you?” I queried.

“I don’t think anyone cares about me,” she replied, not once noticing the irony of those words following a conversation during which she had just felt like someone cared.

“Why?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she said, before quickly changing the subject.

“What do you have for me anyway for breakfast?”

“Cereal.”

My mom has been craving cereal, so this was good news. She decided to open up a bit.

“I miss Orange Drive. I could walk everywhere from there.”

It seems my mom is missing her independence more than usual this morning. She is blaming her discontent with no longer being able to walk everywhere she’d like to as she once did on the fact that she no longer lives in the home on Orange Drive where she raised her children. Regardless of where she lives, those days are gone.

I’m working hard to find somewhere where she will be more comfortable and have more socialization, etc. I know it is the disease talking. I just wish once in a while she would realize that the person who is actually here helping her with daily life does care about her at least as much as the one who calls daily for tid-bits regarding what might be going wrong.

Yeah, I know that is about as likely as my mom being independent again. She has always loved her first born most. That will never change. He could set me on fire and she would still find a way to justify it and call him special.

I love her anyway.

OK, well, it’s time to get ready for work. It’s time to shine.

RuthAnn Hogue is the owner and founder of Whiptail Publishing’s WebTechGirl.com and BookTrailerCentral.co. She is an award-winning author and journalist with an Internet Marketing Master of Science and a B.A. in Journalism/Political Science.