I live 2000 miles away from my mother, who is 84. She is in fantastic shape for her age. Mows her own yard, shovels her driveway, climbs the ladder to get leaves out of the gutter, rakes and bags her own leaves. I've been here for almost 8 years now. It was very hard on her when I left and she basically asked me if I could find someone else nearby rather than move out to be with my fiance who I had been with for 4 years. She also said such hurtful things as "I should have had more kids so some would stick around". I thought that was horrible of her to say to a 37 year old woman. She eventually got used to me being gone and now she tells her sister who is going through the same thing "Well you have to let them go".

Well she tells me that last week she got stopped by a cop. She had only been stopped once before 20 years prior for going about 10 mph over on a rural hwy. She said she was so flustered that she couldn't hit the right button to get the window down. Well she never can even when I'm in the car. She'll hit the lock/unlock, pull the button instead of push it. So the cop had to open the door and get the window for her, which I'm sure made him question her mental state. He said she had drifted out of her lane a bit while he was following her. He asked her if she had any alcohol in the car (she doesn't drink), asked if she knew where she was going (the grocery store). She said he made her feel very incompentent. She didn't get a ticket, but a written warning and was told she'd be getting a letter in the mail from the DMV. Well I emailed the DMV, and although they can't tell me what they mailed her, it is a medical form that she has to take to her doctor and have him fill out so they can see if she needs to be reevaluated for her driving. I haven't talked to her to see if she's received this but I think she either got it yesterday or will get it today.

She told me on the phone last week nearly in tears that if she needs to retest she knows she'll fail. If her driving is taken away she will be so depressed. She doesn't go far, no more than 5 miles from home because everything she needs is within that distance. There's no public transportation near her and she doesn't want to have to call an elderly van service to take her places. I know she would be so nervous as well and probably not do great. She'd be lucky if she can even get to the DMV, which she has gone to several times years and years ago, but she would probably be terrified of going outside of her comfort zone. I just know when I talk to her it's going to end up her saying "What am I going to do? I'm going to fail this. I'll have nobody to take me anywhere because neither of you girls stayed close to home." Then it will be our mission to try to figure things out for her because she kind of expects it. I am hoping her doctor (who has always said she's in good shape) just says she's fine so she can keep driving.