My Mom

My mom will be 80 years old this summer. I am her only daughter. She has four sons and then me.
Last year sometime she started talking about moving out of her condo. she loves her place. Had it redecorated finally and it's her home. She has lived there about 16 years. My dad lived there too but he died in 1996.
Mom started to talk about how expensive it would be to move to another place, like really really expensive considering her condo is totally paid for so all she pays are association fees and utilities. After some more talking and a bit of prodding, it came out that she is having a hard time cleaning her place. You know, scrubbing floors and vacuuming, dusting etc.
So, I immediately told her I could come every two weeks on a Saturday to clean her house, more often if she needed it, and I could see the burden lifting off her shoulders! Really, she heaved a sigh of relief because she didn't really want to move.
So every two weeks I go over there and clean. She does her bathrooms and dusts and I do the rest. It doesn't take long and it's fun. Sometimes my daughter comes with and helps and my husband stays home with the boy.
We talk, sometimes we have lunch, and lately I have been there all day while we identify very old family pictures and the people in them.
It's been fun too. It's absolutely no big deal for me to do this and I get a few hours of "me" time. It's a good thing I don't mind cleaning. And I am glad to be able to do it and help her stay in her own place. Se's in pretty good shape for her age too, which I am grateful for.