Just write a word a day

I have been thinking a lot about my mother and her mother lately. My mother died in 2007, but her mother will celebrate her 107th birthday next week. I visited my Grandmother (in my Tangerine Scream rental car) last month. She was witty, perceptive, and funny.

In 2001, when my mom was 70 and my grandmother was 95, my mother was already quite ill, and could no longer write the long, beautiful letters that her mother was accustomed to receiving. I wrote the following entry in my journal that December (and came across it again yesterday) based on a story my mother had shared with me, by phone:

My Grandma Hannah wanted my mom to write her a letter. Mom said, 'but, Mom, I can hardly write anymore.' Grandma said, 'can't you just write a word a day, and when you get enough words on the page you can send it to me?' My mom rose to the challenge and wrote out the Serenity Prayer for Hannah.

I've been revisiting my journals and memories lately, specifically in reference to my mother, as the Scientist has begun to research compassion and choices, a group dedicated to end-of-life care and choices for those enduring terminal illness. I have shared my story, in the form of an Amicus Brief, with compassion and choices New Mexico to explain why I support physician aid in dying. The brief can be found on this blog: http://pennerink.blogspot.com/2013/02/compassion-choices.html