Nancy Grandfield

"I remember what she said in circle, speaking with heartache of her 90-year-old mother on the East Coast, memory gone, luminously living in the present moment. Another sister spoke of elderly and frail parents in Florida far away.  Another had been driving many miles every day to make sure her mother’s care in the hospital and rehabilitation center was adequate.

The next sister spoke of her increasingly frail mother, spunky and resistant to help in her home. Another talked of her elderly male cousin, her only living family member.   The next sister was involved in looking out for an elderly friend and former neighbor who is no longer strong enough to open her front door.  Another worries about her 90’s aunt, holding on in New England, another about her mother in New York.

Eight of the ten women gathered. We’ve been together for fifteen years, lived with and supported each other through the death of a close colleague from AIDS, the death of one of our circle sisters from a swift-moving ALS, and the readjustments of retirement.  And now it’s that time in the cycle of life to be with aging parents, knowing that death will also be part of this, that our own aging is on the horizon.  How grateful we are to be in circle together. "

Top