The Invincibles

My mother, Elaine and two of her dear friends, Ellie and Annie are all around the same age, you know young at heart. Seriously though they are in their early 60’s. They all met when I was in 3rd grade. So they have known each other for a good amount of time. Annie has a daughter, Kim the same age as me, and we met in school and then our mothers met and Ellie is a cousin of Annie’s. Ellie has 2 boys that are around the same age as us. We would all get together and do things, go camping, go trick or treating, shopping , sleep over’s…you know the usual things.


The Invincibles are the mom’s here. They are some pretty terrific women. Tough women. Smart women. Women that don’t give up. Women that actually think they are invincible! They all have had their “issues throughout life.

Annie~ lost her husband to brain cancer. He suffered horribly and now she lives alone. Granted she has her daughter and her family but still we all know it is just different. That was her sweetheart from school. Can you believe that? After he passed, she had a scare with breast cancer, but thankfully beat it. Her hands are giving her a horrible time and it looks like she is going to need surgery as she can barely use them. Her eyes are getting pretty bad as well. She also has arthritis pretty bad.

Ellie~ lost her ex-husband suddenly. I know you are thinking “ex-husband”, but they still had a really good relationship. She moved up near Carmel and has been battling many health issues. She has severe asthma and needs oxygen; she has had a problem with her foot since she was a child and need to have a surgery every so many years. The last surgery she had did not work out too well, and now she needs to have another one to fix it. At this point she is not supposed to walk on it at all. She fell awhile back and broke her arm and had to have surgery for that and is still having problems.

Elaine~ Of course I know the most about her, since I am her daughter and all.  She has had a rough life. Since I was about 11 yrs old she started having health issues. She got hurt on the job and ever since she seems to be struggling. She also lost her husband about 1 ½ years ago. He also suffered for a rather long time. She has had many surgeries, many illnesses and they seem to continue. Now she suffers from COPD, and needs oxygen 24/7, she is also waiting to have her surgery so she can have a total knee replacement. It has been so long that she is no longer able to walk at all. She also has Fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis and degenerative arthritis. Needless to say her entire body hurts …all of the time.


I say these ladies are invincible because none of them stop. They never let any of these illnesses or problems or anything stop them. They keep going. It is funny in a sense. Although they are riddled in pain they don’t stop, they continue to push themselves. Sometimes I wonder if that is so smart. I mean are they pushing themselves too much? They insist on walking when they can barely move, they continue to drive when they shouldn’t be; they continue to do even though it causes them so much pain. I came in on a phone conversation between my mom and Ellie and it was humorous to hear even though it was just the one side, you can kind of put it all together. They each tell the other that they need to rest and take care of themselves, and yet they themselves don’t even take their own advice. I heard them laughing saying how it takes them so much longer to do anything they had done before. I actually heard my mom say she thought she was invincible. Then I heard Ellie agree with her and say “I guess we’re not, huh?” I laughed out loud, and said are you guys serious? They talk about the young kids and the stunts they do, guess the world should be worried about the “Moms” out there and the ones that don’t know when to “stop” or “slow down” and take care of themselves!!


I think of all what they have gone through in their lives and think about the young ones these days and think they couldn’t handle a 1/3 of what these women have survived.


These women are truly INVINCIBLE!!

Comments

  1. It is amazing the strength that is given to us when we have to endure such hardships. The invincibles in your life should be inspirations to all of us!

    Stopping by from SITS!

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  2. Prayers for all of your friends. As I get older I see how much women need each other. We usually outlive our spouses and then find ourselves in situations of loneliness, wishing and needing we had someone to take care of us. Stay strong and close to each other.

    visiting from SITS

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  3. Quite a story. Makes me a little teary. They must be very touched by what you've written!

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