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I have not posted in over a month. I am in the middle of a huge transition in my life. I turned fifty-seven at the end of May and my eighty-one year-old mother relocated from West Palm Beach after thirty-four years to move in with me for the summer until she decides on what her next move will be. I’m an only child without any kids. I have severe OCD, am a neat freak and a germaphobe and am very much set in my ways. Mother is cut from a similar mold so this is a very interesting social experiment. It will be two weeks on Wednesday that she has arrived and in fourteen days I have experienced memories that will last forever.

Mom doesn’t know ANYTHING about Willoughby, Ohio. She might as well have relocated to Yemen. I only ride Harleys so Mom has to drive her car while I navigate. Don’t assume that an eighty-one year old will slow down at a railroad crossing. I found out the hard way. Think back to the opening of “Dukes of Hazzard.” That was me in a car Mom was driving less than a half a mile from my house. My lower lip is still bleeding from the landing. If there was a video game where the goal was to drive into every chuckhole on the street then Mother would be a World Champion. I won’t even share with you the fear I experience when she is wandering through a parking lot looking for that “perfect” space.” When it takes five minutes to get to the store it should not take you TEN minutes to park the car. This is all new to me as I have been away from Mother for three years. Time changes. People change. We all must prepare to adapt.

Random Picture of Old Lady With Beer. NOT my Mom!

Mom has always been there for me. I have been the focus of her life. I traveled the country doing morning radio while she relocated to West Palm Beach in 1987 in a company move. She left everything behind. I started having health issues in 2011. I had a heart block. I flat-lined in the ER for75 seconds. I was in a coma for six days. Mother was there when I woke up. I had a pacemaker installed. I’ve had a heart Catherization. I’ve been in AFib. I’ve had an ablation. I overcame addiction. I am NOT the victim. A lot of this could have been prevented but we can only control the present. We have the ability to change. We don’t have to repeat our mistakes. I am at a very interesting point in my life. My purpose is to be there for Mother like she has always been there for me. This is HER time. What can I do to make it easier for her? She HAS to feel out of her element. She abandoned everything she knew for thirty-four years. She has to develop a new routine. It can’t be easy.

Here is the lesson I have learned; Money, stature, your job, success and possessions mean NOTHING. They do NOT define who you are. When it is our time to go to the next level no one will be saying “I wish I worked more!!” There is NO loyalty in business. It’s best to be your own boss. I pray for patience and understanding. It’s a day by day process with Mother. I have learned so much in the past two weeks about her and about myself. It’s gonna be an interesting summer. Wish me luck. I know I am gonna need it.

Danny’s widely popular podcast DANNYLAND! will return soon!

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me and momToday is a special day. My Mom is 76 today and is quite an amazing person. She still works full time, enjoys doing outside yard work, and goes to church every Sunday. When I was in ICU she was there every day including the six days I was unconscious. When I regained consciousness she was there as I had to learn how to speak and eat again. I remember her having faith that I could chew a cracker. I thought she was trying to choke me. She was right. How weird that must have been for her to go through something she had gone through so many years ago.
I learned something I never knew about my mother. While in ICU I asked her “When did you tell your first lie?” She replied “I never have. I’ve always been kind of an oddball.” Oddball? This is the furthest thing from being an oddball and something that is parallel to the life of a Saint. Mom has been staying at my house since my release from ICU on October 6th. It’s not easy as I have always thrived on living and being alone. We have had long conversations about my OCD, social anxiety disorder and general anxiety disorder. Although it is hard for her to relate I give her credit for acknowledging my need to always have a TV on 24/7 and how I cannot exist in silence.
I, on the other hand, have figured out her mastering of being passive-aggressive. She will ask me a question and I will say “no.” Five minutes later she asks basically the same question but in a different way. There comes a time when ya just have to say “F##k it” and do what she wants. It makes her happy and stops me from having a severe panic attack and possibly being led away by men in white suits and butterfly nets.
I take this day and salute all of you mothers. I don’t know how ya do it. The unique intuition you have when something is wrong and how you worry non stop. Any female can give birth to a child but it takes an amazing and gifted person to be a mother. I , obviously, am biased and believe that I have the best one in the world. Happy Birthday to my rock in this world and again a special salute to all the mother’s in the world.