This category is: My Mom is So Funny.

My mind has been afire tonight - Mom (who doesn't recognize her granddaughter, my daughter) wanted me to go through one of the picture albums the two have been putting together.

It is amazingly sorted to pictures of me and my grandparents. My sister had sent three large boxes of pictures from Mom's house last year, and volunteers and granddaughter have been working on this project, filling albums, for a while. She seemed to be able to gather memories and identify people in a way tonight that was more vibrant than it has been in some time. She was full of beans. Fiesty. We joked and laughed and made fun of the posers in the pictures. When she gets going, she makes me laugh harder than anyone can. Snark & Snide & So Refined.

Tonight Mom asked something about my paycheck. I said why, do you need some money? She says, only a couple of hundred. I said, why, did my brother call?"

She cracked up. Then she said I was mean. It is a long-standing joke about my ne'er-do-well brother. The woman is very witty - the original sharp tongue.

She may have an entirely non-functional body but her mind is cunning.

And cutting.

My mother doesn't brush her teeth in the morning, she sharpens her tongue, a stiletto tongue. This has been known to me at least since my first day in kindergarten.

I inherited my mother about 18 months ago, when my dad was dying. She is a quadriplegic due to multiple sclerosis - I am positive she has lived so long due to dad's diligent, attentive care.

Why he thought I was the proper choice of several offspring to take her on is beyond my ken. Mom & I never got along - no love lost here - but, we seem to manage now. Wonder of wonders.

Caregivers take on a hero's quest.

It is impossible, with no reward.

People will make up stuff about how blessed you are, but in their minds the real thought is, "glad it is him/her and not me."

Fact is, my parents have done me a favor, getting me to take this on, but more about that at another time.

This category, My Mom is So Funny, is going to be a blog chronicling her witticisms, but mostly it is about caregivers, caregiving, and any issue associated with eldercare, that is, the whole panoply of managing America's aging population.

The whole situation is just too crazy: the most reasonable thing to do, instead of growing infirm in the U. S. of A., is drive off a cliff.