Looking at a New Year

Today is the last day of 2012 and people get sappy about the year that has gone by while they make resolutions that frequently are not kept.  I will avoid all of that.  I will revel in the fact that my mother still knows who I am when I visit.  I will take note of the happiness I see on her face when she asks me about our family--though she asks it over and over again in a single fifteen minute time period. I will hope that the new year finds me able to continue to visit and bring news of the outside world to my mother and my uncle.  Finally, I will think about the years that my mother and father lovingly cuddled on the couch as they watched Guy Lombardo on New Year's Eves.  Their total devotion to each other and lasting love is what I hang on to.  It is not something that "should be forgot" as Auld Lang Syne says, but rather, it is what gives me hope of a good New Year for our family.  I believe that somewhere in the tangled neurons of Mom's brain she still basks in that love that sustained her and gave meaning to all of our lives.
Happy New Year!