SHE WAS DETERMINED to attend her granddaughter’s wedding. And she did, one day shy of three weeks after suffering traumatic injuries in a fall.
Three of my mom’s granddaughter’s (including my daughter, middle) visit with her after the wedding.
She would be my 82-year-old mother.
About the only photo I managed during the ceremony, taken from my place in the pew.
Saturday afternoon Mom was among some 400 guests packing English Lutheran Church in Walnut Grove for the marriage of Carlyn and Jared.
The day marked a milestone for Mom, her first outing in three weeks except for the long ambulance ride from a southwestern Minnesota hospital to the trauma unit at North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale and the car ride back to a nursing home five days later.
The reception was held at the community center in the bride and groom’s hometown of Westbrook.
Already while hospitalized, Mom set a goal to attend the wedding. Then she decided that she might like to go to the reception for awhile also. She accomplished both.
Guests shower Jared and Carlyn with birdseed as they leave the church.
It is good to have goals when you are eighty-two, or any time really.
Nursing home staff painted Mom’s nails for the wedding.
I am thankful to the staff of Parkview Home in Belview for encouraging and working with my mom and even painting her nails for the wedding.
I am grateful, too, for a family that has been there for her every step of the way, encouraging, supporting, loving.
And for prayers. Yes, prayers.
Mom faces a long road toward full recovery. I understand that. But she has already come so far.
Yet, it is not easy to see the fading purple bruises, the oversized bump that still mars her forehead, the neck collar that locks her broken neck in place, her frailness…
There are times when sadness overwhelms me. But then I remind myself to be grateful. For every single day I have my mother.
© Copyright 2014 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
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