Doodle Painting in between both lovely Mums

The subject of old age has been thrust upon me this last year with both my own mum and my mum in law needing extra help and support. It’s beginning to make my own life feel more fragile as I move towards my 60s. Not being in the best of health it brings home to me the need to make sure we have things in place to be able to cope as we get older, rather than be completely unprepared as both mums are. Will my current struggles with M.E. just end up being masked by infirmity as I get older?

Painting is my passion and they say if you are doing what you love doing, then you never “work” a day in your life. I am doing what I love and whilst I still have a good few years left before my official retirement age, I hope to be able to carry on painting and doing what I love well into my senior years.

The list of essentials for getting old though, are in short supply for my mum and mum-in-law. Seeing how difficult things can be for them has made me realise that we are getting our home in order for that very eventuality. We live in a bungalow. Check. We have a walk-in shower. Check. We can order our groceries on line and have them delivered if we need to. Check. We can stay connected with people through social media. Check. All these essentials elude both my mums leaving them isolated and struggling.

Trying to switch off from their struggles while I get on with my own life is very hard. I’m torn in two at times. Mum lives too far away to pop in for a cuppa. It’s a long drive and a stop overnight. I’ve found that to do what I consider my best work, I need to be in “the zone” and “the zone” is eluding me at times at the moment. Creating though is just part of earning a living, so during my “out of zone” times, I have been focussing on the admin side of my work and developing my online Shop. Now I need to figure out how to wave my hands in the hugely overcrowded virtual world of shops and galleries to show that I am “Open for Business”!