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No, I'm afraid not. She had an infection that I feel that Hermann-Memorial Southwest Hospital in Houston undertreated and sent her home with, that ended up killing her. When she went down again we took her to a smaller hospital and I believe in my heart they did their best and I'm grateful, but it was too late.

I work in a medical education environment in a technical staff position, and my mom cared for sick people all her life. It is sick what they are doing.

She warned me early on, in the eighties, say, by telling me stories of the families who would dump their elders, the children who would never visit, things like that. I determined I would never let that happen to my mama, and I took care of her from about 1991-2001, when she passed away.

They talk about how people "wouldn't want to live like that." Truly I tell you I wouldn't want to live with the guilty knowledge that I had the person who gave birth to me put to death because she had become a pain in the butt.

There is always guilt, but I can stand before God and say I did my best and when I would fail I would come back, and get back in there and keep trying .

And there was still laughter, and joking, and good times along the way... it was not always grief and pain and sorrow.

Thanks for asking.

I know what you mean....I quit my job as an English Instructor in New Orleans to take care of my mama in Houston...she had diabetes and congestive heart failure...it was worth every minute of it to spend those last years together. Her heart failure was beginning to catch up with her when she had a small heart attack and the clot buster removed a plaque that was controlling a coronary aneurysm. She had a wonderful last day, visited by the people that loved her, and died very suddenly (none of us knew this was going to happen).

Thinking of our parents as burdens instead of loved ones is not a good way to go. I don't know how much I still miss her, and if she were here, I would still gladly be caring for her each and every day.

I know exactly what you mean. I was the primary caregiver for my parents and grandmother. There were times a plenty that I wanted to say enough and I did have one incident with my father where I was ready to haul his a** to the nursing home, (he straightened up real quick after that lol), but every time I thought I could not continue to take care of them I was reminded of the verse in the Bible where we are told to put our faith into practice by caring for our elders.

3 The church should care for any widow who has no one else to care for her. 4 But if she has children or grandchildren, their first responsibility is to show godliness at home and repay their parents by taking care of them. This is something that pleases God very much. 1 Timothy 5:3-4

This nation has lost a great part of it's soul with the advent of the "Me" generation. They are the ones who threw away their own children and they will throw away their parents without a thought. I did give up a lot at the time but I also gained quite a bit too. I learned a whole lot from my grandmother regading money management and creative frugalness, family history, wisdom in so many different areas that is not being handed down to the next generation. We are losing a lot more than we realize and it will get ugly down the road.

One of the blessings was inheriting my fathers home and not having a mortgage to worry about. I did not take care of my parents and granmother for any financial gain but because they lived at home it did pay off as well. I lived with my grandmother while I finished college. It was a great trade off because she lived two miles from school. That saved me a whole lot of money.