My Nanna... Mom's Mom
With the knowledge that my Mom will never be able to return to her Home to live independantly it has made me introspective and challenged to contemplate what makes it "Home"? What is it that each of us surrounds ourselves with that make it feel and look like "Home"? I want the space she occupies, where ever it is, to have that quality of "Home" that will make her content, relaxed, at Peace and more comfortable to be there. A place that when her Guests walk in it feels like Mom's essence and touch is present and therefore now it is her "Home", where they feel it as they visit and she feels it as she resides there.
This Ring of Antique Keys has been around in our Family since before I was born & probably sparked my fascination with Old Keys...
My Brother is presently being equally challenged with making a portion of their Home become Mom's Home too, in Hopes that she can regain enough strength to make the long trip to live with them. So they're busy moving many of her Treasures and possessions over to California to set it up and when they receive her, she will instantly feel at "Home" again. Her vast Wedgwood collection and Bohemian Bling has already made the trek Westward.
I'm still taking care of Mom's Apartment until the transitions are complete... and before everything is removed I wanted to photograph some of what is left to give me a visual of what makes it Mom's "Home". It feels very strange and unnatural walking in without her presence... her essence is still very much evident, but it makes me emotional and feels eerie knowing that she will never go back there, to the Home she has resided in for so many years and was Hopeful she could return to if she got well enough. It feels suspended in time in fact, to that day on July 6th when the crisis with her health unfolded... there is still evidence and disarray of the Paramadic intervention... of the last things she and my Brother did the Night before they went to bed. That Night before had been her Birthday in fact, a day filled with much activity, fun and special memories and they had retired quite late and so hadn't bothered to tidy up as much as usual. Mom is a stickler for tidy, she is the Queen Of Clean and made a fine Art of having an amazingly Beautiful, exotic, fragrant, organized and spotlessly clean Home... regardless of age, mobility and health challenges... if anyone could have had excuses for letting things go she should have & could have, but she never did... NEVER!
She would in fact be horrified to see the dust that has collected in her long absence... but I can't bring myself to bother, there seems no point and so many other things to do that are a priority... and so, even with some mere dust and a few things out of place, it just no longer feels right because Mom would never have that! *LOL*
Showing off the Treasures Great-Nanna spoiled them with this day... *Smiles*
Showing off some of the Origami Treasures the Great-Grandkids made for Nanna... they are both budding Origami Masters... this Heart is actually 3-Dimensional and can hold Candies!!!
And so as I'm bringing some of what makes it "Home" to her over at the Nursing Home and we're foofing her new space to give it her particular Signature and Style its slowly evolving and I see her comfort level increasing and her anxiety and agitation diminishing. The presence of Loved Ones is of coarse the most important aspect of "Home", but we also need to feel a belonging and connection to the actual Space don't we? It reminded me that there are many aspects that make our individual Spaces a "Home"... what makes it "Home" for YOU my Friends?
Dawn... The Bohemian