My mom

I've noticed a few things about my mom in the past week.

She is calm in a crisis, remembering to notify her doctor that she won't make the appointment she was rushing to when she fell and dislocated both her elbows.

While her Red Cross certification may have expired, her first aid knowledge is still there. Laying on the driveway, moaning in pain, she instructed my sister and brother to elevate her head and cover her with a blanket.

She doesn't let go of what is important to her, in many ways. Preparing for x-rays in the emergency room, they cut off her wedding ring and that was the first time I've seen her without it in my lifetime. And waiting for the doctors to reset her elbows that same morning, she looked up at me and said, "Promise me you won't miss your doctor's appointment this afternoon." (I promised and indeed I went.)

She doesn't do anything halfway. Seeing the orthopedist yesterday, he told her he didn't believe her when she said she'd dislocated both her elbows because he's never seen anyone dislocate both of them at the same time. Then he removed her arms from her splints and was amazed again--neither he or his colleague could believe the range of motion she'd recovered in only week.