When my mother was 80 years old, she climbed onto a 4-wheeler and drove it down the lane and back.

She spent most mornings from April to September in her yard, pulling weeds. May was for planting and October for raking the limp leaves.

Although my father had made all the auto purchases in the family, she took that on in her 80s and selected the car she wanted.

She’d call a family member in the afternoon. “I need you to come over here for supper and help me get all this food eaten.” And they’d come because she’d prepare a nice spread for a meal, often including a pie.

One day at breakfast, the kids and I decided it would be a good day to visit the zoo. “Let’s invite Grandma,” one of them said.

“Uh, we need to leave in a hour,” I said. I didn’t think that even my mother, who adjusted to almost anything, could pull that off.

She did. “Sure, I think that’ll be fun.”

Mom walked all over the zoo that day and helped me tend to energetic kids. Wonder where they got that kind of energy?

@copyright Kathy Brasby

So when we decided to make a trip into the Colorado Rockies to view the fall aspen colors, of course Mom came along.

Although she slept all the way up on the two-hour trip and slept most of the way, home, too.

Two weeks later, we found her on the floor beside her bed with a useless left arm and leg. A stroke.

Her life changed in a moment.

She still has the same spunk, the same drive to go. But she has to go in a wheelchair now.

It’s a cliche but life is precious. I’m glad Mom had those adventures and did all she did. The memories keep us all going as we walk through another season in Mom’s life.