Mum will be 99 this year. She lived in the same bungalow in Andersons Bay in Dunedin from 1948 to July 2022. Dad died in 1987, so she lived alone for 35 years. She coped magnificently while continuing to delight in everything about her married life. The only concessions to her independence were Meals on Wheels and once a week a woman to do the vacuum cleaning. Mum has always referred to this as doing the “luxing”, named after the Electrolux, even though the model for the past decade or more has been a Mitsubishi. Mum said the woman was hopeless. Of course.
At the annual get-together with my Dunedin cousins we talk briefly about our ailments. We’re all on medication of some sort. Mum is on none.
