Sunday, January 13, 2013

Knitting Through Troubles



Wanted to post my latest finished knitted project and I could not resist telling what I went through during the finishing part of this piece.

My mother has been living with me almost 3 years.  My dad was diagnosed on my mom's birthday, February 13, three years ago with brain cancer.  My husband and I moved them into our home to take care of him and my mom during this difficult time.  He passed away 7 weeks later and my mom never returned to her home.

If she lives until her next birthday, she will be 86 years old but her health is failing.  On December 21, 2012, at 10:30 PM, she fell going to the bathroom and fell flat on her face.  Her faced was banged up pretty bad so we called 911.  I spent the next 40 hours going through one of the most trying times I've had in a while.  To make a very long story short, she hit so hard that she lost her eye sight in her left eye and, of course, she took another leg down in her ability to take care of herself.

I was finishing this project during all that and am always fascinated  at how you can still have a hobby that can relax you during a stressful time.

God has been very faithful and after 3 weeks, she is getting along pretty well.  I have a different sort of view for those people who have spent years care taking someone they love.  It's a very exhausting job but I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve my wonderful mother in what will probably be her last years.  I don't think I will look back and ever regret a minute.

Part of care taking involves also taking care of myself.  So....Dawn and I headed off on a Saturday to Hillsborough Yarn Shop in Hillsborough NC for an afternoon excursion of yarn shopping and lunching to give me a much needed break and of course, I came back home with more Isager yarn which has quickly become one of my favorite yarns and I had a bag full!

Here we are taking a break....we love to pick out our yarns, take a break and go eat and then get right back into more yarn shopping.  Thank goodness we both kind of set a limit on how much we'll spend because, we can be very dangerous as most of you knitters understand.....!

It was a very fun and relaxing break for me and always fun for Dawn to practice a little shopping.....maybe practice wasn't the correct word!