AN ENIGMATIC AND POIGNANT JOURNEY AROUND MY AGEING AND EVOLVING MOTHER! PART 130.

 

For those of us who have had or cared for babies, for young children, we can recall the anxieties we had about performing this serious role. 

It is the role of a carer, whether it be the child's parents or other responsible persons tasked with the job of monitoring the child and ensuring his/her survival. 

Making sure that they can and are breathing. That their nostrils, their noses and faces are not obscured or covered by things which could obstruct their breathing. 

That they are in a secured sleeping area and are not going to fall and get hurt.

The objective of monitoring and ensuring the well-being of the baby or young child it to ensure their survival into adulthood.

The objective of monitoring my dear mother is to, as much as I can, ensure her safety, during this final stage of her life's journey. 

So, yes, it is not the same kind of anxieties that I would have for a baby's safety, as these would be higher. 

Considering that for the child, it is about maintaining health and life of someone whose life has just began and who is yet to identify and achieve a purpose to that life. 

Whereas, for my dear mother, it is about someone who has already achieve what she has achieved, and whose life is coming to an end.

But just as how a person is nurtured into acquiring and developing what we have come to know as human dignity, as they grow into adulthood. 

So also does the question of their dignity looms large for the person who confronts their passing from the world of the living. 

And just as how the young and awkward child might struggle to present his/herself confidently and with an air of dignity. 

So also does the elderly and frail adult confronting the abyss, will also try to hold on to his/her sense of dignity. 

To be continued!