Generational Gaps

Wifey and I visited Very Old Mom yesterday, to install an "I've fallen and I can't get up" system in her house. Wifey stayed in her condo working on the unit, while I took Mom to the bank and for lunch.

She's strikingly frail. As I helped her into and out of my car, it was like I was feeling a small skeleton with some flesh around it. Like a baby bird...

But she's still hanging in there. In fact, she's happier than she's been over the past several months, which I attribute to the anti depression meds kicking in, finally.

The new warning system requires she wear a button on a lanyard, and basically press it. An attendant comes on, and asks if all is ok. If there's no answer, the attendant calls for help.

Just the fact that she has to remove the lanyard when she leaves, and put it back on when she returns, was daunting to her. Wifey wrote a note and taped it to the back of her door. It truly is amazing how much life is a cycle. At nearly 90, she's become a little girl again.

On a more humorous generational topic, I bought the Ds an early Chanukah gift: tickets to see a performer named "Lady Gaga". The Ds are thrilled. I have zero earthly idea who this singer/dancer is.

D1 posted a Facebook (tm) line about how excited she is. One of Wifey's friends responded that she "didn't get" the big deal about this person, and started comparing her to Madonna.

Of course she doesn't get it! The lady is closer to 60 than 20, and has no RIGHT to get youth culture! I asked her whether her parents, Greatest Generation members, used to "get" The Doors, or Neil Young. I suspect they didn't understand all of the noise (or in the case of Neil Young the self referential arrogance and whiny voice) while they listened to Sinatra and Glenn Miller, back in the 70s...

That's one thing about Very Old Mom --she accepts her generation and place. I guess that makes aging a bit easier for her than it is for Baby Boomers. I think Wifey's friend still sees herself as a 20-something...

Still, I couldn't help but recall Tete Townsend's lyric about hoping to die before I get old. On the other hand, I want to give my Ds something to look forward to: maybe I'll become a terribly irrascible old man...or not!