Yesterday ended very nice with an evening of music on the Village Green in Great Neck; we were there later than planned and caught the last two cover bands; the first covered some of the best of Bad Company and opened with Free's All Right Know (my all-time fave song) - one common thread is Free's drummer Simon Kirke and lead vocalist Paul Rodgers as founding members of BadCo with Mott the Hoople's Mick Ralphs and King Crimson's Boz Burrell; the band was a rather theatrical cover of the music of Meat Loaf featuring costume changes and fun cover of Paradise by the Dashboard Light.  And I needed that after a tough afternoon.  Health matters and respite living in a beautiful assisted living "mansion" in the Fleetwood section of Mount Vernon, mom's physical limitation really pushed the envelope when I get a call they need to send her to the hospital to drain a finger.  I drove up to meet mom at her place and wait with her for the ambulance to bring her to the hospital.  I'll not discuss how the need to go to very nearby Lawrence NY-Presbyterian got decided; once there the ER Physician determined no need to drain but did order X-Rays and finding nothing more than the pre-existing Arthritis, proscribed antibiotics for a week.  An ambulance also took mom home.

And that is the point; mom is limited to a wheelchair and while PT and OT might free her some at some point, my optimism does not prevail here.  That immobility limited mom's option to going to an ER rather than an urgicare location in the alternative.  It made me think of how Friday's blogger -- not that much younger than mom -- has no such apparent limitations.  It made me commit to myself not to allow myself to succumb to whatever caused mom to be so restricted.  That means putting a premium on an ability to live "independently" going forward; certainly a concept I embrace and understand chairing the board of vibrant senior center in Queens.