Oldest Living Relative

At times it is more enjoyable to read other people's blogs than to post on my own. Lately I've been reading other blogs and doing some research on the Ziegler letters I have. My inspiration for this post is from Greta at http://gretabog.blogspot.com/ and Wendy at http://allmybranches.wordpress.com/.

My oldest living relative is my mother's brother. He turned 88 this month. He and his wife live near us, just a few miles in fact. He is three years older than my Mom. They are close but for them it might as well be across the country, they don't get to visit very often. They both are in bad health, both have had heart problems, cancer, high blood pressure. Another thing they share is they are both EXTREMELY hard of hearing. Both of their parents were hard of hearing, I guess I have something to look forward to. Mom has hearing aids but still has trouble hearing especially on the phone. Since she has trouble and he can't hear on the phone (doesn't ear it ring) they can't visit by phone.

My cousin brings her Mom and Dad to see Mom from time to time when they are able to get out. That hasn't been very often since my Aunt fell a few months ago. I haven't been able to take my Mom to see them in a couple of years. They have steps, just a couple but she is unable to go up even a couple. The last time I took her we got her in ok but had a really hard time getting her down the steps.

We always think we'll go in the spring when we could stay outside, but my Uncle has breathing problems and has to take oxygen. The day has to be the perfect day, not too hot, not too cold, low pollen. It's sad to know they would love to see each other and visit but can't.

He has always been a lot of fun. I can remember when I was a small child he called me shadow. I was very shy and would hide behind my Mom. He would look around and say there's Katherine's shadow.

We went to Florida with them several times and he was always fun. They took me to Myrtle Beach when I was a teen. My first trip to the Ocean! They also took my brother and me to Opryland theme park it was closed down a few years ago. I remember he talked me into riding a roller coaster with him, no one else rode. I guess they looked to see what the roller coaster was going to do. It was a bit more than I liked, but my Uncle seemed to have fun! He even asked did I want to ride it again! No!!!

He drove until a couple of years ago when he decided it was too dangerous since he couldn't hear emergency vehicles coming.