Mom's Beginning

I look back and try to remember when it all began.  I don't.  But, I was busy with my own life.....kids, husband, job, students.  She moved back home to live with her mother who really needed care, companionship and someone to share her house.  I suppose that was the beginning. She had her own life a few states away.  She was a teacher, a friend, a beach-goer, a grandmother, a Mom and self-sufficient!  But, her life altered then and there.  Her days became filled with prescriptions, doctors appointments, Jeopardy, 8pm bedtimes and she suddenly had no life of her own.  Her escape became her evenings out of playing machines after my grandmother went to bed.  When it became really lonely, she would spend money she really didn't have to play some more.  That was her time alone.  Her time that was just for her.  I know she felt entitled to that in the beginning.  But, somewhere along the way, that changed.  Her alone time gambling, her get out of the house gambling, became her obsession.  From the looks of her bank accounts when we moved here near us (That's another blog altogether!), her obsession had taken over and what started as an escape, ended as an addiction.  And, here we are today, still trying to help her overcome her "get some time alone" addiction.