The Weight of Years

My mother is almost 90 and living in a nursing home due to her physical and cognitive impairments. She’s very frustrated by her situation, complaining again and again that she is, “just stuck here”. A good deal of her feeling of being stuck is cognitive - beyond anyone’s ability to fix. She was an avid reader, she crocheted, she quilted, she sewed, she worked her “puzzle books”, and played Dominoes and Bingo with gusto. She loved watching old westerns on TV, she walked every day, she cared for her little dog like it was a child. Not so long ago, she was vital and active. She no longer engages in much of anything. She says, “I can’t see to do anything.”, yet her vision tests belie that. Her therapists tell me that she can see, but she struggles to process. I had a particularly exhausting visit with her yesterday and today I have the inevitability of aging on my mind.

I created this video a couple of years ago, but it only becomes more relevant as I deal with my mother’s aging and my own.

Images, text, and video by Wanda Oliver, all rights reserved.