Snap. Crackle. Pop. That’s not your cereal talking to you. That’s the sound of my 85-year-old mother’s leg breaking vertically from her hip to her knee. It was a gruesome injury from a simple fall that Iowa Ortho surgeon Chinedu Nwosa said he had never seen before. But after maneuvering her hip ball back in place and using something that looked like an Erector Set to piece her leg back together, she is recovering incredibly, thanks also to the wonderful folks in skilled nursing rehab at Bishop Drumm.
In dealing with the surgeon follow-ups and other doctor visits, I can’t help but notice how the table has turned. As I check my mother in to her appointments and sit with her and the physicians, I recall when she did the same for me. As a child, I didn’t know what to expect. I was uncomfortable with the process. I was scared. My mother feels the same way now.
I attended a conference several years ago where the keynote speaker detailed a similar table-turning experience that he was dealing with. He asked who in the room were parents, and then he inquired if their children ever have “just one more thing” to say to them each night when they are attempting to walk out their bedroom doors. He then compared that to the often-lengthy phone call conversations he had with his mother when he was trying to hang up the phone but she had “just one more thing.” He pointed out how the kids and his mother both wanted something so simple: his time. Somewhere in between these stages of life, we often miss the significance of this.
As Mom continues to heal and contemplates what’s next for her in the years she has remaining, time is truly of the essence. She becomes frustrated when I can’t spend as much time with her as she wants me to. And I become frustrated trying to juggle the other aspects of my life and care for her, too. It’s not easy.
A few decades back, attorney David Belin gave me some advice when I wanted to buy a smaller newspaper that I thought would fit well in our company. He told me that I have plenty of ideas and energy, and he and his partners can supply plenty of funding, but that time is the greatest commodity and must be used wisely. We only have so much of it, he said, and something has to give.
He was right, and it is a reminder to me, and to all of us, that we need to continually evaluate how we use our time to best serve our own needs and the needs of those around us.
Have a wonderful Wednesday, and thanks for reading.
Shane Goodman
President and Publisher
Big Green Umbrella Media
shane@dmcityview.com
515-953-4822, ext. 305 | 
