Privilege Blog

Generations, Or, Saturday Morning at 6:07am

Santa Barbara Hendry's Beach 2014

Pretty much directly after my children came to visit I drove down to Santa Barbara to see my mom. And there we have midlife, in one little sentence. There was no health crisis – this time – but my 3 siblings and I now make sure that Mom and her husband get a visit from one of us every month. They’re 81. I imagine many of you have similarly aged parents.

Time to get back on the road. Fortunately, our heat wave has passed. Fortunately also, Santa Barbara was a dang good place to sit out 95F+ temperatures. Am taking bets on whether my front-yard lettuces recover. Odds, anyone?

Have a wonderful weekend.

9 Responses

  1. Beautiful beach. So lovely to sit and watch the waves. Yes we try to coordinate looking in on Mom as well.

  2. My parents are gone, and I miss them every day. As people go out of our lives, things change and are never really the same. There is a void that we live around, mostly very well, but its something that people don’t talk about very much.

    I didn’t see them every day, but I did see them quite often. Nevertheless, just knowing that they were there meant that all was as it should be. I think it’s wonderful of you and your siblings to care for your parents in such a thoughtful way. Once children have left the nest, it means the world to see them, as you well know.

  3. Holding a good thought for your lettuces! Glad to hear your Mom is doing well, and yes, if you had to be anywhere in this heat, Santa Barbara’s as good a place as any.

  4. I’m right there with you. Thank goodness I no longer have to catch a plane to visit my mom, though two of my three children require air travel to see me. I’m grateful one child still is at a driving distance… the route you just traveled in fact, long but doable. Yes, I feel quite in the middle these days.

  5. Gorgeous beach and it remind me of why I love your state.

    My mother is 91 and we try to see her several times a month as I am the only child close enough to do that.

    I hope you are enjoying retirement. It seems that you are.

  6. My parents have been gone for nearly a decade, and Alzheimers took them both from us a few years before that. In the last three years, I lost my brother, a first cousin, and the last two surviving relatives of my fathers generation as well as my childhood best friend. It is a sobering thought that aside from my sister, there is almost no one left who remembers me as a child. I am “only” 67. I wish now that I had spent more time gathering stories from these people before they were gone, and while their memories were intact. Cherish your visits and use them wisely; their stories will mean more to you than any other inherited possession.

  7. You know, I thought I recognized that beach. If it’s where I think it is, it’s one of my favorites and definitely my favorite in the SB area. I’m looking forward to seeing it again next month (as well as eating at La Super-rica), followed by a drive up the coast to your neck of the woods.

    I hope that you had a lovely visit with your mother and that your travels home were safe.

  8. We go from I-have-to-visit-my-parents to I-wish-I-could-visit-my-parents so quickly, it seems.

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