The elderly and driving

I have the very best in-laws in the whole wide world. Hands down. Encouraging. Positive. Caring. Have been there if we need them, but don't do the buttinski thing at all. Have allowed us to be independent. Likewise, they have valued their independence.

Now their bodies are breaking down. It is time to say goodbye to driving. (Actually, it is past time, and we are just fortunate that a tragedy has not occurred to them or someone else. )

I am staying with my father-in-law (Milton) while my mother-in-law is in the hospital. He was visibly shaken yesterday when I came home yesterday from the hospital without his wife (we thought she was going to be discharged, but that did not happen)

Milton is a man of integrity. We've talked about the driving thing. The independence is important, but the bottom line is that he made a resolution a few years ago that he was going to keep driving until he is 88. That is not until November 08. We talked over how people re-evaluate based on changed circumstances, and that no one would think less of him, and that sometimes our bodies do not cooperate. I was able to share with him eye-to-eye and ear-to-ear the things that are happening with me... and how we are adapting - but that this is because we talk about things and use information. And face facts.

Anyway, please pray for Helen in the hospital, Milton as I take him to visit her, to the audiologist today, neurologist tomorrow, and for stamina for me.

Often, it is the doctors who take a drivers license away; sometimes the children "abscond" with the car and keys, and report the adults to the DMV; I believe it would be easier for Milton to make an adult decision to re-evaluate and decide that he will not drive, and hand over the car to someone else.