We have had meltdowns, but a lot of the times we have been too busy to dwell on much. Today was one of the meltdowns, as it was the last time the three of us will have been at our parent's house all together. We have spent our last night together sleeping there, laughing there and crying there. We were photographed waving goodbye to our home/neighborhood and the tears roll down my cheeks even writing about it. Two of us will return later this week to finish the last detailed cleaning and allow the new buyer to take earlier procession. We have worked very hard to get to this point. I don't know how Mom/Dad would feel about us 'giving' away their treasured processions, but we kept what we and/or their 10 grandchildren can use and gave away everything else, except the stair lift and 2 chair lifts (out of 4) which we haven't found homes for yet. Did I tell you Mom was a shopaholic? Dad let her get whatever she wanted (always) and she wanted a lot. Anyway, I think perhaps they would be okay that we chose to not $ell anything. I hope so.
Since Mom died, her youngest sister was diagnoses with stage 4 pancreatic cancer and the sister between the two of them is now in assisted living from worsening Alzheimer's. Since we are a close family this has been hard to accept. Mom would have been worried sick if she were still alive. We are so concerned for them and the 90 year old sister who lives alone. I can't imagine what she must be feeling. And, I'm certain we all secretly wonder what is hereditary and what is not. My older sister (62) was not a BRCA carrier, but discovered breast cancer in January. BTW, I am thankful I was able to tell her about this Mayo website and she has found it extremely helpful during her journey. THANK YOU!
Another thing we each give thanks to is that we have not had a single conflict/disagreement - about anything. Decisions about their house, farm, investments, belongings, etc. have all been made jointly and without any debates. Even our three husbands have worked magically together. We have so much to be thankful for.