We left off as a blizzard was approaching. We got hit with a huge storm, making the roads nearly impassable. I did make it in to work that weekend, and ended up hunkering down at my daughter Angel’s house who lives 5 minutes away. I’ve never driven in worse conditions. The cold weather and storms left our roads with massive potholes. Our early spring weather has not been a lot better with cool temps and massive rainfalls and ice storms. We lost power for a day. I am really starting to long for warm and sunny days.

Thankfully the weather didn’t hamper our vacation plans. I almost had two weeks off of work. When I got back to work, I was told the good news that our supervisor resigned. I really hope this will improve the work environment.

Right after getting home from our trip, I went to visit my mom. It had been several weeks since I saw her. I was sick one week, the blizzard hit the next, and then we were off on our trip. I could tell when I saw her that she had rapidly declined. She no longer eats or drinks much and oftentimes afterwards gets sick. She stopped smiling, talking much, or acknowledging my presence. Her light is fading fast. A lot of times, I cope by distracting myself from thinking about it. It’s hard to see her this way, not able to care for her own basic needs. She looks like a skeleton.

I try to focus on good things, like becoming a grandma soon. Angel is 6 months along and starting to show. She is due on her birthday in July, just like I was due on my birthday with her. They are going to have a baby girl. They decided to buy my parent’s house. My brothers accepted their offer. My parents built the house 50 years ago and haven’t done anything with it since then. They are going to have their work cut out for them.

My husband Paul is almost done with the tax season. He is doing really well but has been working every day since the day after we got back. I really appreciate his hard work and he really saved me by doing the guardianship accounting for my brother. It was a mess since I became guardian several months into 2025, taking over from my mother who was developing dementia. My mom started 2025 by writing out checks, and I took over in the 2nd quarter until I was able to get a payee in the 3rd quarter.

It’s hard to believe life has changed so much over the past year, even the past month. I wonder what the next year will bring.