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The Dance of Generations
Navigating Aging Parents and Young Children
In the quiet moments between my daily 10,000 steps and helping my mother with her nebuliser, I find myself caught in a beautiful, challenging space — watching my mother age while simultaneously witnessing my nephew bloom into his curious three-year-old self. This intersection of generations has become my daily meditation on time, love, and the inheritance of both health and care.
Mirrored Bodies
I’ve followed Mom’s aging through the subtle changes in her hands and hair, and in the last eight years, through hospital visits that left images burned into my memory. I’ve been by her side through cataract surgeries and gallbladder removal — procedures that were traumatising in their own ways.
What strikes me most is how our bodies seem to be in conversation with each other across time. Both her shoulders froze while she was in her 50s; mine followed suit in my 40s. We share hypothyroidism, and now our HbA1C and ESR numbers mirror each other like echoes. She underwent menopause in her early to mid-50s, and I suspect I’ll follow the same timeline.
Even as I approach my own mid-century mark, there’s an inner child in me that refuses to accept the inevitable. This child doesn’t want to lose her mother and clings to every…
