help the aged, cause one day we'll be lonely too.

i just wanted to briefly try to explain part of why i so do not want to put mom in a home. i don't know if anyone not undergoing this, or who hasn't, could understand the value of the sweet moments. There are times, sweet moments, when we are together, when she is so happy. She has thanked me before for staying with her, while walking the dog. We walk together in the mornings sometimes, when the heat has not yet risen, just the three of us, chatting and joking. In those moments we are normal, and we are happy. She doesn't have dementia, she isn't slowly losing herself. She is a woman walking with her daughter. Am i to rob her of this normalcy, of these moments?
Some of my favorite moments occur when she is asleep. Often on the way home from the doctor, a grand affair. It takes so much stress and work to get her ready to go to the doctor, but once we have left the time turns into a blessing, and i thank God for these days. She loves the rural 45 minute drive to her doctor's office, and often, while driving home, she dozes off. At these times i love her so much. The scene is so peaceful, and, like a child, she is so trusting and innocent. We have had a good day, maybe shopped, almost certainly gone for ice cream. She has pointed out the houses on the way to and from, convinced that not only does she know who lives there, but i do too. Then she falls asleep, at rest, at peace, not the somewhat difficult to attain and medically induces sleep which often occurs at night, but the quiet inadvertant slumber of the relaxed.
We are a team, mom and i. Maybe i'm not the best caretaker. Maybe we do not do things well, or right, but we are a team. If the Lord wills, i'd really like to try and keep this team together.