My Mother and Crows

 

 I had lived with my mother who had Alzheimer’s for about fourteen years.

 Then she had another disease, which required her to be transferred to a hospital. Because of her other disease, her Alzheimer’s got worse. My wife and I decided to put her in a nursing home. Finding a good nursing home was difficult, and the procedure was complicated, but we eventually found one.

 When my mother lived with us, we were very busy, especially in the morning. My wife and I needed to help my mother in going to the toilet, getting dressed, and eating breakfast. We needed to prepare to see her off to the day service. After we put my mother in a nursing home, we could enjoy our morning time.

One day, while my wife and I were sleeping in, suddenly, our telephone rang. It was one of our neighbors.

“Your trash bags are miserable!”

 We looked out in front of our house and saw some crows broke our trash bags. They were eating our scraps. Our trash was all over the street. It had never happened before.

 This happened because we put my mother in a nursing home.

 When we lived together, we put my mother’s diapers in the trash bags. They might have smelled like excrete from a big omnivore and might be a good crow repellent. When my mother moved to a different place, our trash bags just smelled leftovers. The crows might have been overjoyed. We had covered the trash bags with a crow repellent net, but it was too old to be effective.

 When my mother had Alzheimer’s, I felt that she was just a burden on our family. I didn’t realize that she could be useful in an unexpected way.

 We only realize the value of our mothers when they are not around.

Picture by visekart