Oh, MommaGia!!!

Interesting perspective today from a friend of mine who is 93 years old. Her name is Gia. She was born in Tuscany, the region of Italy where Forence is located. Those from Florence consider themselves speakers of the "true" language of Italy...yea, it's cute...she's the 2nd Tuscan I've known that has proclaimed that sentiment.

Anyway, she was baptized a few months ago and being a ward missionary, I dropped by and interestingly, no on has really latched on to her so I started going over more frequently. She is amazing. She lives totally alone and gets along seemingly fine, tho now I'm discovering more areas where she needs help, such as saving her quarters for her trips to the laundramat...really?...at 93?....dragging her clothes in a wagon?...huh uh, no more sister...those puppies will now be laundered and delivered...no sweat!...she never considered asking for help. She gets one meal delivered a day and she only eats half of it so she can have something for dinner...REALLY!!! in 2008??? Here in so-called Paradise???...oh heck no...not on my watch MommaGia.

She wears skirts that are way too long for her stooped stature. They create a fall risk...Soooooo, I feel a trip coming up to my Pakistani friend who sells everything for $10.00-skirts, dresses, everything...I'm taking her there to pick up some stuff this week...at least stuff she won't trip over.

Also, she has one working ear and that only has about 25% hearing capacity so we're also going to a specialist and find a hearing aid and then!!! we're off to get a foldable wheel chair so we can go for rides and to movies...So, anyone reading this that that lives close by and has access to an in-expensive wheelchair that folds up to fit in a trunk, please let me know via this blog and I will come and pick it up for my Giaconda....She may be planning on "transporting" (her word for dying), but she's having several day trips before that happens.

She was born to a wealthy millionaire factory owner who died when she was 5 years old. She was the youngest of 8 children. She was placed in a convent at 5 and remained there until she was 16. Her mother died while she was in there. She was released to live in an apt but was introduced to a man with whom she had two children in the early 40s. He died. She outlived two others husbands. I asked her, of all of her husbands, who would she wish to spend eternity with?...she said, "None of them, they were lucky to have me."....hmmmm, this should be interesting.

She has lived all over the globe; Ecuador, Peru, Africa, Bagdad, France, etc. I asked her what her favorite place was and she said, after she had finally been to so many places, she realized that it's the same sun and the same moon, so how vastly different could it possibly be?....pretty wise observation...but she added that Baghdad had the best restaurants.

She lost her son when he was in his early 60s and her remaining child, a daughter, lives in Jordon where she is recovering from cancer treatments. My friend receives no money from family...she only has her social security check..that's it. nothing else...ever...

Gia's plan is to spend her remaining time just planning on transforming to the next stage of her development (passing to the spirit world)...she thinks this is why we're together...I don't know. I've buried a couple of old good friend in the last year and a half and it's no fun...do I really have to do this again?...again?...

Oh my...this will get way tougher before it gets easier...fo sho.