Suicide or Crazy Old Lady...you decide. LOL.

Not that I'm calling my mom old or anything...but if I'm old (and I am), then she is older. She is what might be known as "elderly". Although, I must say, if you met my mom, that is not the first term that would come to your mind. She has only slowed down a little, and that's only because the body limits you as you age. I can say that from experience.

And I'm not really calling her crazy, either. Although we are both a little....well, eccentric might be a good word. Or crazy.

So anyway...you know how sometimes you listen, but you don't really hear? Well, we had gone somewhere today, and on the way home she was talking about her roof, and what she needed to do, and I was listening, but I somehow missed something along the way. I do remember, as she got out of the car, she said, "If you see me fall off the roof, you can come over and pick me up." I laughed and said, "OK!" and backed up and drove into my driveway. My granddaughter and I got out and went in the kitchen and decided to have some of my delicious (it really was) Mennonite Turkey Noodle Soup. I had simmered it most of the day and it was yummy. (Mom had been over earlier to have a cup, in fact.) Well, some dripped from the ladle when I served it and so I went over to the sink to rinse the handle of my cup, and out the window I see my mom climbing up the ladder and onto the roof! I put the cup down and went screaming out the door to get Jeren so he could run over there and get her down before she hurt herself! Crazy woman! Maybe it's just me, but 80 year old women just don't belong on the rooftops. I was less nervous, so many years ago, when I found my 18 month old daughter up on the roof with her 5 year old uncle! At least they were young and resilient! :p

Jeren ran over there and disaster was averted but in the meantime I got these pictures. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but seeing these made me realize that they only tell the story that the viewer wants to see, unless they already know the story. Let me illustrate.


Despondent? Or trying to figure out what to do?

Probably thinking, "Why the hell did I have kids if I'm the one up here on the roof when I'm 80?"


An innocent bystander might think that here she is praying before she jumps. Or praying for a solution. Or praying for a rescue? Who knows?

Actually she is probably having a senior moment. You know how it is when you're old.
You get somewhere and then try to remember what it was you wanted to do when you got there. Sometimes you actually retrace your steps to try and figure it out.

In this picture it is obvious that her grandson is talking her down, right?

Haha...no actually he is discussing various other means of fixing the little leak. The leaking area is much smaller than the gigantic tarp being used to cover it. Our first windstorm of the year pretty much told the tarp who was boss, which is why just moments before this picture my mother was pulling it back up on the roof. Sadly my camera chose not to focus when I took that picture. Jeren got there right about that time and, as you can see in the next picture, he rolled the tarp down to the actual area of the leak. Really. It's just a small area.


Talking her off the roof. LOL. My granddaughter and I were cracking up by this time. I have no idea why my mother thought she should be up there.


Jeren held the ladder steady so she could get on it.


And there she goes back down.


Safe on the ground. Disaster averted.