My mother is one tough lady!

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My mother is 91-yrs-old. She has emphysema and has to be on oxygen 24/7, has lost most of her sight to macular degeneration, has several herniated disks making her back hurt all the time, has one bad knee and a failed knee replacement on the other one, is diabetic because of the meds she has to take to breathe. You'd think she'd be ready to move on by now with everything that's wrong with her. But, nope! This lady's still up and about and doing things for herself, albeit much slower than before with a periodic call for assistance as needed. She gets up in the morning, makes coffee and her own breakfast, gets herself washed and dressed, made potato salad and apple salad for the weekend so far, mopped the kitchen and bedroom floors this week, vacuums, occasionally cooks (simple things), washes dishes, makes her own bed, etc. I am amazed at her love of living and tenacity. Her life hasn't been easy. She was raised on a farm - several, actually, since they rented farms throughout her childhood until her mother inherited her father's farm. She helped her father in the fields; learned to cook with her mother; eloped with her childhood boyfriend only to be divorced less than three years later after he got himself a girlfriend while she was caring for her dying mother; moved back with her father to help him; worked as a housekeeper for the local tavern (formerly a stagecoach hotel) where she met my father who drove bus and stopped in for lunch every day and only wanted her waiting on him; tolerated Dad's drunkenness and verbal abuse for far too long, but stayed married until Dad passed away 5 years ago after 55 years marriage. The woman is just plain determined to live and one of the toughest people I've ever known. I've never met one person who doesn't like or respect her and who doesn't think she was one of the best cooks in all of South Jersey (how many women do you know whose husband's friends would ask her to cook something they liked because their wives couldn't? LOL) Anyway, that's my mother - one hell of a woman!!