When Parents grow old

I had my mother with us last week.

It was both fine but also very sad.
Despite the guest room having its own bathroom and toilet she frequently got lost going to any of the rooms.
She needed help to have a shower, to brush her teeth amongst  many other things.

Both My wife's father and my father are dead.
My  wife's father was the GP to the country town of Blayney and did a magnificent job. I remember being woken up in the cold mornings more than once to discover him driving to the hospital to to help patients, usually the result of car accidents.
He had a very sharp mind and thus it was heart rending to see him deteriorate so quickly when he retired. To visit him at the Aged Care part of Blayney hospital was heart breaking. The great thing was to see how much the hospital staff cared for him.

My father was a very energetic man. He would paint the house every year! Once he was in decline he declined very fast and was a shadow of the man he had been at his peak.

There are some people who want to live to a ripe old age. I am not one of those people.