Saturday, September 17, 2005

Painting & the greatest IL's ever.

I have been doing lots of painting and cleaning at my SIL's and my FIL's home. She is preparing her 2 spare bedrooms (now that her boys have moved out) for the possibility that my FIL may find it necessary to move in. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer back in March. The first line of treatment did not work and the cancer has spread so now he is reluctantly doing chemo. He has been really weak during the last 3 weeks and has not been able to keep up with his normal day-to-day housekeeping. He would never ask me, but I have made it a point to go with my SIL over to his house and just clean little bits at a time. In addition I've been doing his weekly shopping.

My SIL tried to pay me for the painting and the cleaning, but I told her, this is what family does for one another. She has fibromyalgia and is a breast cancer survivor so she is limited in the amount of physical labor that she can do. I told her, Darlene, you have given more to my children over the last two years than I could ever repay by being a step-in Grandmother. She has! She has basically paid for the most part of the 6-Flag vacations that we have been on. We spend several nights in a row over at her house--I mean all 5 children and myself. Who has a friend like that? I'm one of the most blessed persons in the world.

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