“The only thing that is constant is change.” is a saying from Heraclitus of which I have heard all my life. Change is uncomfortable for many. We become complacent and comfortable or set in our routine. It is easier. Change is hard and so many of us avoid it by hiding our heads in the sand. Many of us also try to predict or plan life that often is unpredictable.
When I turned 55, I started my “five year plan”. I owned a business that was 15 years old and began putting together an exit strategy. I knew my widowed mother would be turning eighty in a few years and I worried about being so far away from her. What if something happened? A year later, I signed a 5 year agreement with a mergers and acquisitions firm to begin marketing my business for sale.
Ten months into the process, I received a late night call that my mother had suffered a stroke and was taken by ambulance to a hospital. My mother, who was living independently and was a strong, vibrant woman had a stroke? How could that be? I was unaware of heart disease in her history or family. She had two sisters in their mid-nineties!
As the next few days past, I learned she had been taking high blood pressure medicine for a while. She had been recently treated for hypertension. She never told me about that stuff. As most mothers would say, “I didn’t want you to worry.”
The result of the stroke was full right side paralysis, aphasia, and swallowing issues. After 4 days in the hospital, I was told she needs to be moved to a skilled nursing rehabilitation facility. They stressed that it was NOT acute rehabilitation, but must be a skilled nursing. You have 3 or so days to find one and make arrangements to transfer her.