My MIL

If life is a celebration, then it's never too late to celebrate it. I'm choosing to celebrate the life of my mother-in-law (MIL), Madeline Flink. I have had little of my MIL's attention. I met her in the midst of her alcoholism and dementia and to say that she had a violent streak, a rage, is nothing short of the truth. Being plunked into her life at this point didn't allow us to become acquainted the way either of us would have liked. As such, I was afraid of my MIL and kept physical and emotional distance though I delighted in preparing nutritious meals that my husband transported to her home lest she not be properly fed.
My husband, her son, became her guardian which was a huge emotional tug-of-war that had to be surmounted. She was incapable of maintaining rational thought, was paranoid, and unable to take care of her own physical needs. She lit candles and turned on the stove to cook and left both candles and pans to burn out (unattended). She collected food scraps, fermented, and drank them to intoxication. We found her passed out frequently. Despite all the evidence mounting against the safety of her staying in her own home, the family hesitated to exercise authority over her for her own good up to the last possible second. The moment came when the good Lord allowed her to fall and break a hip, which showed the family that the time had come. I opine that the Lord allowed this because I believe in His infinite wisdom, she was allowed to fall at a time when one of her son's was coming over to check upon her, and not after his obligatory check when she would have languished on the floor in pain for the entire night while the fire in her wood stove died out leaving her in a 40-degree house.

I have started a new blog in her honor. I think she would like it since Madeline was fond of writing and oft spoke of writing a book. We found many of Madeline's "writings" all over her house, on magazines, phonelists, cereal boxes, scraps of paper, the backs and fronts of pictures, on countertops, and even upon the cupboards themselves. Her life is properly interesting to some of us. Madeline Flink, my MIL, an industrious Catholic woman, a wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, pioneer of sorts, a woman connected to the earth, a humble woman, at times, a wronged woman. I hope to capture a pleasing portrait of this strong, salt-of-the-earth human being.

Gee, I hope this is a good idea.