I Need a Direction to go in … Is there a Map to Where I Need to Go?
By Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee/@GeeGranny on Twitter
Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee
Skip and I am on a new path in life … like a train switching tracks to go in another direction. Only … there’s no information, manual to tell us which direction to go … at the moment it wouldn’t do any good … our tracks have switched and we are traveling ahead … to where … I don’t know.
We are almost out of control … racing ahead to … where? At the moment I am telling Skip that we will take one day at a time … cross each hurdle as we come to it, everything is going to be alright. He listens … and wonders … how are we going to live in the meantime? I become quiet … I don’t know what to say. I’ve never … been here … on this road before.
We are listening, grasping at any, all information we are getting to make eventually make decisions as to what to do … but, there’s a lot that we have to figure out. We have no idea … which way to go … yet. We will find it … one way or other.
Our whole life as we know it … has changed. Why am I writing about it? Because … I know other people have gone through this before us … and I’ve not seen how any of them went on to survive … getting older, having to go somewhere to ask for help … medical conditions … just what in the world to do.
I remember when working in the hospital … with patients. We were told that not only are patients very sick when in the hospital … no one knows the fear, stress they are going through because … of no income to pay bills, to live … they are afraid of what is going to happen to them. The fear of not knowing.
I remember caring so much … as I listened to the very things … that we are faced with now. Isn’t it amazing? We’ve become … ‘old’ … have many health conditions … and no income.
Now … I know what ‘they’ meant … I am yet again learning about things in life that I didn’t know personally … I’m on another road. I had just gotten back on my old, familiar road at the end of December when I was told my knee cap, and fibula had healed beautifully. My old, familiar road ended on Friday, January 8, 2016. This new road is scary …
I am spinning in a circle at the moment. Skip is in the hospital facing something new. You can’t believe the stress, yes … even fear of knowing that to live … you have to make decisions to do something you are afraid to do … the unknown.
We are facing many unknowns at the moment. What does one do? Where do they go? Who cares? Who to talk to? Is there a manual that exists somewhere on what to do when you can’t retire as you once hoped to … and you are completely out of resources?
We have lost everything several times in our life due to when we both battled cancer … and I won’t even go into everything that’s happened. I won’t waste time as it can’t help ‘now’ writing about all of those things. So now … when ‘older’ … we don’t have those valuable resources we were told to have as young people for when aging … getting ‘old’.
At this moment … I tell young people to put more up for when getting ‘old’ so, you’ll have something to fall back on. I know it’s almost impossible to do that … life can take it all at an instance. Just be aware, have a plan as you grow older … have a direction.
Don’t think you are so young you have … forever … before doing anything. You don’t. If you make that mistake … my words will come to mind. Life goes fast … why we got ‘old’ before we knew it. It felt strange to hear someone call us the ‘older couple’. What felt ‘bad’ at first … was a cashier to automatically begin giving us … senior discounts! That was a sign to us that we are ‘old’.
You have no idea of what one goes through to accept becoming a senior citizen … losing one’s looks, seeing the changes when aging. People age in different ways. They grieve for the loss of their youth.
I was one who grieved in a deep way for my youth … I lost it during the time I grieved for the loss of my child. When I began to see myself in the mirror … I didn’t recognize the woman looking back at me. I couldn’t look again for long periods of time … I couldn’t take it. I had lost my only child … and I had lost … myself.
We owe so many medical bills it’s pathetic … they won’t ever get paid. We are people who have tried not to take from others … not ask for help … go without and not let others know. We have always been ‘givers’ even when at lots of times we didn’t ‘have it’ to give. I mean … who are we to ask someone for help … we aren’t anything to anyone.
I am voicing some of what is going through my mind as I am sitting here thinking. I am not asking anyone for anything … or asking for sympathy. I am sitting here … wondering … what in the world do I do … now?
How can I help us in a positive, good way? Are there maps to where I need to go … directions to know which roads to turn on to take instead of going in a circle forever … not getting anywhere, wasting valuable time?
Are there maps to where I need to go? If it were only me … I would spin on out of control and just let go. It isn’t just me … I need to find answers quickly as possible. I need a direction to go in.
Note by this Author:
True thoughts on my mind this morning as I wait. I don’t know any answers to my questions … that means I don’t know what to do … yet.
Photo/story owned, written by me … Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee.
oh, Gloria! How well so many of us can understand your words! I pray for peace of mind, while you’re facing whatever it is right now, and for good health.
Coral, thank you for your comforting words. ❤ Gloria
So sorry hun! 😥
Wish I could help, but it would take a miracle!!! 😦
Love and hugs my friend!!! 😦
Prenin.
Yes, it would take a miracle, Prenin! 🙂 Love, Gloria
Courage is what you have – courage!
Thank you, Julie.