{"id":326,"date":"2010-09-08T05:29:09","date_gmt":"2010-09-08T05:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/?p=326"},"modified":"2010-09-08T05:33:52","modified_gmt":"2010-09-08T05:33:52","slug":"call-your-mother-but-keep-check-on-those-car-keys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/2010\/09\/call-your-mother-but-keep-check-on-those-car-keys\/","title":{"rendered":"Call your mother, but keep check on those car keys"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of the 45 “Instructions for Life” I typically share with my English students at the beginning of every semester, one of the most meaningful to me has always been #15 “Call Your Mother<\/span>.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This post is dedicated to my mom, Rebecca Balcher, who passed away three years ago, five days after her 90th birthday.
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It was our ritual to talk on the phone every day — and sometimes more frequently — like when the Academy Awards were on TV and we’d have to make a call after the announcement of each major award.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>And four times a year I’d fly from California to Ohio to visit my mom, who lived alone in the home my five siblings and I had grown up in. One of those visits (when she was 82) was the last time I remember her “Driving Miss Shari.”<\/span><\/p>\n

We’d set out early one evening to see a movie in a nearby neighborhood. Ninety minutes later we were back at home; neither of us remembered how to get to the theater. Fortunately, I knew how to get us home.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A doctor diagnosed my mom with Alzheimer’s shortly thereafter, and we had to take away her car keys. I now have some idea of how she felt. I miss her very much<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Do you know any loved ones who ought to set aside their car keys?<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Of the 45 “Instructions for Life” I typically share with my English students at the beginning of every semester, one of the most meaningful to me has always been #15 “Call Your Mother.” This post is dedicated to my mom, Rebecca Balcher, who passed away three years ago, five days after her 90th birthday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,4],"tags":[47,45,44,46],"class_list":["post-326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-memories","category-pearl-under-the-rock","tag-alzheimers-sufferers-shouldnt-drive","tag-great-grandma","tag-rebecca-balcher","tag-taking-away-car-keys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharisax.com\/DrivingMissShari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}