August 28, 2019
Yesterday, I was in our dining room staring at the laptop and drawing a blank on what to share for this blog. I was also multi-tasking and talking to my daughter in St. Louis at the same time.
Then, I heard the clackity clack of Rosemary’s walker entering the dining room and her mouth started sputtering with excitement of something to share. She didn’t notice I was busy on the laptop and couldn’t see I was also on the phone with my daughter, so she immediately started telling me about the audio book she just finished reading. She was telling me all about Mrs. Blake and how the gold star mothers evolved, their trip back to France, finding a grandson, and so on. I was so focused on finding something interesting to write about for this week’s blog but was interrupted with this intermission. My daughter on the phone was giggling and laughing at her Grandma’s excitement and her Mother’s lack of interest in the newly finished book.
My daughter even said “Mom, this IS your blog this week”. She was right…this blog is my experiences and this moment was a true window into our daily life.
So, this IS my story this week.
Rosemary has been an avid reader all her life. When her eyesight started failing, we enlisted the help of the local public library system to establish an Overdrive audiobooks account. Weekly, we download books that are checked out to her iPad for 14 days and she listens to them on headphones which are easy to for her to hear. Rosemary typically reads 3 to 4 books a week and particularly loves historical fiction or history books.
The most recent book touched her heart. It was called “A Star for Mrs. Blake” and the story was set in the 1930’s about five American women (some immigrants) who were all Gold Star Mothers, who travel to France to visit the graves of their WW1 soldier sons. It was a timeless story set against a footnote of little-known history.
At 93, it is important to challenge ourselves to learn, to read, to experience and grow. Kudos to Rosemary for her zest to learn and relive parts of history through audiobooks. Keep reading Rosemary and keep sharing. I’ll do a better job at listening too.
If you have book recommendations, share them with Rosemary in the comments below
