Cindy & Truffle
Mom & I is a different kind of mommy blog. It is not for young mothers with young children. While I’m the mother of an adorable 5-year-old bishon frise named Truffle, this blog is about my mother and me. Actually, it’s about two mothers, my late mother, Ruth Kurman, who died 42 years ago when I was 13 and my other mother, Celia, who married father when I was 21.
Mom & I is for all daughters of aging parents.
I’m going to tell stories, offer insights, and hopefully provide resources to help you understand what to expect as your parents age.
This blog is about how the many powerful women in my life helped to shape who I am and how their actions affected me and everyone in my extended family.
This is, of course, my opinion. I am not a therapist. I have no professional training in the area. I am a daughter. A daughter-in-law. Mother to Truffle. And, wife to Lee Barrie.
As you read,I hope that you’ll think about your own life. You may have your own stories to tell. I urge everyone reading this blog to post your thoughts. I’m looking forward to the journal.
Mom & I. Helping each other by discovering the common thread that makes us one.
Thank you for writing this blog. It is such a wonderful read for me on so many levels… The East End connection, the Squirrel Hill connection, the Jeannette connection. My Mother is sick right now and the articles are so relevent to what I and lifelong friends are going through. I even feel a special connection with your childhood. I, also, grew up in a predominantly Nonjewish community and was “trucked” off to Squirrel Hill every Sunday for Sunday school and then to my Grandmother’s. My memories are not as heartwarming as your’s. It always felt like the “outcast” day. Keep up the blogging. I’m loving it. Pam
Hi Pam,
Thanks for your kind comments. I’m learning so much about everyone. Who knew that you were from a small town! No wonder why you and Gail get along so well. I probably felt more like an outcast in Jeannette then I did with my relatives. Not that I didn’t love Jeannette (and still do), I just never really fit in.
Cindy
It is always surprising to me how comforting shared experience can be. There is so much I have read on these pages that resonates. I watched my own father’s ten-year slide into dementia, and except for the times they messed up his medication, also saw him mellow, especially when my brother and I visited. He finally passed away at 81.
I am now making every effort to spend as much time with my 83-year-old mom as I can. I spent all of November with her, to care for her after surgery. I drive over every couple of months. (She lives outside of Detroit. She wants to sell the house, now that dad is gone, but Michigan’s economy has been on the rocks for a long time.) Mom is still pretty self-reliant when she’s not sick or recovering from surgery, but she also feels lonelier.
I did note that you were from Pittsburgh, which caught my eye simply because that’s where I was born, as well. Small world.
Anyway, thanks for sharing. There is comfort in knowing that others know what one is going through. We are not alone.