Sorry your aunt is slipping.
Really kind of you to visit. And that you brought her the bread and soda.
Love that she has a crush!
Just meaningful that you went today.

Thank you Marian! I try to get there once a week. I used to go more often until she got moved further away.

Sorry about your Aunt. It seems like she is not slipping that much if she needed you to move your chair to have a clear view of her guy crush. Good for you Auntie.

Thanks Carly! She's been bedridden for years. It's a long story but it's basically her fault.

You are a good person to visit this difficult aunt and I admire that. Just also please take care of yourself and meet your own needs first. Hugs to you.

Super sweet of you to see you Aunt.

Hope she enjoyed the banana bread you bought her.

Love that she has a crush. I think thats cute.

Big Hugs to you and your Aunt.

You are one very good niece.

Thanks so much! Today is my youngest brother's birthday. I remember my Aunt coming to watch my brothers and I when my Dad took my Mom to the hospital in labor. She was fun back then. She always came for tea. She called me today and is really sounding old. She thought it was August 5th. She did enjoy the banana bread. Next I will give her some pumpkin cake. Somehow, even though she is difficult, I love her.

I was always close to my mom’s two sisters growing up and in adulthood. One of my aunts passed away several years ago in her mid 50s from pancreatic cancer. She died about 3 months after diagnosis and it was so devastating. My mom died in 2019 at age 73 (anniversary of her passing is this weekend). She had Alzheimer’s disease. My mom’s younger sister is still living. She’s 70. Knock on wood but she is relatively healthy, active, independent, sharp as a tack but she is obviously getting older and given the unfortunate illnesses of my mom and other aunt at fairly young ages, I brace myself for the worst with my living aunt sometimes. I talk to her regularly but I don’t get to see her very often because we moved across the country earlier this year. It hurts to not be physically closer to her.

Sorry not to get all doom and gloom but my point I suppose is even when they get older or have physical or cognitive decline, and in all their imperfectness, they are people we love or loved. Take them as they are. If they could do better or be different I suspect they would. Mental decline is challenging for families. Couple that with physical illness, it’s a real pile on. I know cognitive decline isn’t always a straight line. Like you can be lucid one minute and the next not a clue. It must be really scary for that person to deal with.

Anyway I was just having this conversation with my brother that in the rhetorical scheme of things, at this stage in life, once our aunts and uncles pass, we are next. Stone cold fact. I don’t have my own kids. Hope my nieces and nephews are as kind and caring to me as I tried to be with my aunts. I hope they forgive me or have compassion for me if I’m altered in my aging or decline. Because yeah I’m the “fun” aunt in my family but aging and illness ain’t for sissies. It’s hard. I can understand developing an edge when unwell even if it’s not intentional.

Keep showing your aunt you love her by showing up for her, as nuts as she can drive you :)

Thank you rmb! That's a shame about your Mom and her sister. My Aunt has her wits about her and has a very good memory but she suffers from paranoia and delusions. I have diagnosed her with PTSD because her first husband was an alcoholic and burned down their home. My Aunt watched as it burned. She trusts no one. Everyone steals in her mind, right down to the peanut butter crackers that I make for her. She is scared a lot. We tell her all the time that they aren't going to do the things she says they do. I'm annoyed with her about her cell phone. She never answers it. She has it in a little bag. I call her almost every day, with no answer 95 percent of the time. She calls me when I am at work. Annoying! I can't have kids around me hearing how they are going to kill her. I have 3 brothers, all younger than me. I hope that I die first. But I hope to live to a ripe old age!

I think 86 is a nice even number. I recently heard an interview with Michele Obama. She said she is 61 and if life is good she has about 25 summers left. I love it! If life is kind I may have about 38 more summers and I pray to enjoy each moment and live very purposely extending light to everyone I encounter

Its really nice that you are visiting your aunt. Im sorry about her slipping, and i hope she feels better.

Mel, 86 is only 19 years away for me. I'd like about 30 more years.

Jalen, thanks! On our visit on Sunday, she was saying really crazy stuff.