Seasons Greetings From “The Home”

My mom is almost 90, extremely sharp and still pretty mobile – and the whole family does realize how lucky we are! In helping her move from one house to another recently and planning where to install grab bars and other helpful devices that enable Mom to remain independent and active for as long as possible, I started thinking about my own and my husband’s mobility and how long before we require those same devices. There are times we’d welcome them today, especially after a weekend of lifting and schlepping all of Mom’s crap from house to house. It made me wonder if I should get a head start on that bitch Mother Nature and set our house up for the inevitable and gradual (if we’re lucky!) deterioration of our own mobility.

I started a list of some of the gadgets that help make Mom’s life easier, things that maybe we should have in our own home.  I’ll have to ease them gently into our lives — If my husband discovered a portable potty chair in our bedroom today, he would immediately dial 9-1-1.

Thanks to Mom, we already own some of the helpful devices, such as a reacher, which I keep in the kitchen for fetching seldom-used items, like pots and pans from high shelves. (Remember, I’m not Martha, and my lower shelves are filled with good stuff.) Mom gave me the reacher for Christmas several years ago, and I was highly insulted by the sheer ugliness of the instrument and the insinuation that I was getting “up there.” She also gave me a jar opener, probably that same Christmas, and I appreciated it just as little. However, I cannot tell you how many hundreds of times I’ve been very glad to have both contraptions. By the way, opening a jelly jar does not represent cooking, even in my house. More on this  later . . .

In the meantime,since you are reading this new blog, we are probably related or very close friends — and you are wished a very warm and happy Christmas from mcmerb2home!

Jar Opener

Reacher Gizmo

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