My mom is in assisted living in Brandon FL - we had the best talk yesterday about the election.
My dad passed away in 2007 - my mom and dad were married 54 years, and because she was now isolated in RI after my dad's passing, we had to move her to FL (she is within a few miles of my brother) into assisted living, which she has pretty much loathed. She at 85 is still physically fine, but in the evening especially, the conversations with her are tough - really just a one way opportunity for her to rant at me about how unhappy she is....I think part of it is "night confusion", as she has been diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia - it comes and goes, and often she has odd images (though they don't frighten her).
So I was most delighted when I rang her yesterday in mid morning and she gushed about how happy she was Obama was reelected, how most of the people around her were "grumpy nasty republicans", so she watched it alone in her room and jumped and yelled when the election was called. It was the most fun chat we had in a long time (my brother got remarried to a woman in FL who is very right wing, veiled racist, fundamental church type, and he has taken a hard swing to the right, which really bothers my mom).
Just before she hung up, she told me that her dad (my grandfather, Walter, was the one who first interested me in gardening and was a real pal my whole youth until the time of his passing at 90 - I used to take him to the horse and dog races and he would do quite well!) always told her, from a young age, "never vote Republican - they only care about themselves and the rich and do nothing for us".
She didn't realize Florida eventually went Blue - and that made her even more excited...I have a feeling she was going to rub the faces of the other more right wing occupants in it a bit at dinner time!
