When my Mom lost her job, a place she’d been at for 15 years, she decided to move up to New York to be near her Mom. The only thing was, it was hard to find full time work in her field, and she couldn’t afford to buy health insurance. She hadn’t been feeling good for at least a year, and by the time she finally went to a doctor, she was diagnosed with Stage 4 Ovarian Cancer.
My brother & I both went to help her after surgery, but we knew we couldn’t stay and really take care of her, and she didn’t have anyone else up there. I wanted her to come live with me in North Carolina, but she was such an independent person, the idea of having to move in with her kid didn’t sit right with her.
Well, her best friend from work, a woman named Andrea, had always talked about wanting to move to NC, just the timing was never right, and it still wasn’t. Instead of moving to NC, she bought a home there (!) that she called her ‘summer home’, and let my Mom live there so she could be near me and also be independent.
It was the craziest thing I’d ever seen anyone do. And even though my Mom couldn’t survive the cancer – she made it for about two years after they found it – it was the most amazing thing that she could be near me, she could see my daughters (her grandchildren) and we could help her when she needed it, and we had amazing times as a family before Mom passed, thanks to Andrea’s kindness and unbelievable generosity.
Andrea didn’t even keep the house after Mom wasn’t there – even though it was technically hers, she thought she’d be moving into ‘Mom’s space’, so she sold it. But before she did, she helped me put together the most beautiful Celebration of Life in the house, and Mom’s friends from all over the country flew in to remember her. There was a lot of crying and a lot of laughing, but mostly there was just love.
Thank you for what you’re doing and for letting me share this story. I haven’t seen Andrea in years, but I’ll never forget what she did for my Mom.
