Before I die I want to take my mom home to Ireland
It is never too late to create a list of things you want to do in your life.
Never.
The picture to the left illustrates this perfectly. My mother and I were all booked on trip to Ireland in 2005. We are both dual citizens. We had two weeks planned over there and then I had to file for divorce and an important court date randomly ended up being scheduled on day we were to be traveling. After a lot of talking with my lawyer, my mom and I ended up “postponing” the trip. We were certain we were going to go.
But then some other things happened and then some more and then my mom had a brain hemorrhage in 2009 and with that came some severe health problems. In 2013 she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. And even then, my sister and I still planned to take my mom to Ireland. Of course she would eventually forget the trip, but we would have the memories. My mom’s health though, quickly deteriorated and in the time it took us to get the trip planned, her doctor’s changed their mind about her travel. She cannot go. She is too ill.
It all happened so fast, an entire decade went by in a breath. Even when I took the picture on the left in 2014, I had every intention to take my mom home to Ireland. Now all I can do is go for her and hope that whenever I go and wherever she is, her spirit will be with me.
I keep an updated bucketlist. I add to it a few times a year, at least. I cross off what I’ve done and I take a lot of pictures. I took over 3000 photos when my husband and I were in Thailand in 2013, but I can look back at those photos and remember. I smile. I remind myself that I accomplished something I’d planned to and that I was there in a place I’d wanted to visit since I first read about Thailand when I was just a girl.
Make your bucketlist today or if you’ve got one, get it out and update it. You’ll feel better, I promise.