Both of my parents are in the hospital tonight. Seems so strange that my father would have asked to room with my mother, but he did. Apparently they both have pneumonia, although my mother is not doing nearly as well as my father. He'll probably go home in a day or two, where my mother may be in the hospital for weeks, depending on how things go.
Its strange how families change over time. I never could have envisioned how the relationships between my siblings would so affect my mother. There are five children in my family. My oldest sister Jennifer lives in Oswego, NY and has lived there for many years. Next is Melissa. She lived in South Carolina for the duration of her marriage, about 15 years and has lived not too far from my parents farm for the last 19 years . Jonathan is my brother who has lived on the farm for all of its existence. He got married 30 years ago and moved into a mobile home near my parents house , then some years later got divorced, remarried and built a big log home just above my parents home. Deborah lives nearby my parents home in Schaghticoke. And I live in Brownsville,TX, far away from NY and the farm. Ive lived in Brownsville for 24 years now.
Over the years, there has often been conflict in relationship to aspects of the farm. My brother has done the major part of the physical labor on the farm for many years which has included milking cattle, haying, planting and harvesting other crops as well as maintaining the farm and its buildings and machinery. Jon and my mother were often at odds with each other, because my brother was the physical manager , but my mother wanted to be the verbal manager and there were many conflicts regarding their different styles
Melissa came up from SC 19 years ago after a bitter divorce, and I thought she was going to be a good ally for my mother as well as someone to help out with farm things. She and my mom bonded right away because of her love of all things farm and animals. However, they also clashed right away and my mom realized that Melissa was not going to stay on the farm with her. Soon Melissa bought a farm a short distance away from my parents and my mother helped her with everything from taking care of her children to giving her money to fix her house , barns and buy more sheep.
