Just a little update on my mom and Bruce’s mom. Both are 86, widowed and making the best of life.

My mom is currently living in Oviedo, Florida in an independent living complex, where she has her own apartment with her Yorkie pup Willow and her kitty Graycie Louise. She struggles with some health issues, and after 3 moves since losing my stepdad, she is staying put in Oviedo. I’ve tried to get her to move closer, but she says she doesn’t have another move in her, so I travel to Oviedo (5-hours round trip) about every other week. When I go down, we go to one of her doctor appointments, go to lunch, go shopping and just take time to talk and laugh… which we do a lot of!

Sylvia, Bruce’s mom has had shoulder replacement surgery and wrist surgery in the last few years, for both I had traveled to Louisiana and moved in with her for several weeks to help her recover. But then she started to develop dementia. It has been slowly coming on, but in December 2025, she fell at home and broke her hip. From there, she was hospitalized, then in a long-term rehabilitation facility, and now in a nursing home. Gosh, it went so fast.

Tell those that you love that you do. Life is fragile, life is fast, and life is precious.