My mom is 81 years old. If you met her you would never believe she is 81 years old. You would think she is in her 60's. She lives in NYC but since she retired when she was 79 she visits Florida a few times a year. This started a while ago and it was originally only for part of the summer. My mom had a best friend, Evelyn and they would go to Florida in the summers. Two summers ago Evelyn passed away. My mom was devastated and was uncertain if she should visit Florida. She made the decision to go there for the summer. It was at this visit that she met Ed. Ed was the yang to my mother's yin. Ed was a 64 year old single, never married bachelor. When he met my mom he found love. Unfortunately it was short lived as Ed passed away last summer.

So now January 2010 my mom is back in Florida. My mom has a computer and cable. She is not anti media yet she failed to check the weather for Boca,Florida before she left. Her thought was it is Florida and it is hot because Florida is hot. She left form NYC and she knew NYC was not hot but she dressed in her Florida clothes and she was freezing at the airport. She also choose to leave early for her flight which I advised against but she is stubborn. She thought she would leisurely hang out in the airport. News Flash, at 5AM most services at the airport are closed. So there she was; in an airport improperly dressed and without services.

Finally she landed in Florida. Florida was cold. Most people knew this if they watched any weather info. It was on most news/weather reports because it is part of the weather. It goes something like this, “South struggles with record-setting freeze.” There are many headlines like this.

So I called my mom when she arrived in Florida to see how the flight went. She was surprised that Florida was cold. However,. She thought that was a passing fancy and the minute she stepped out it would become warm. She put on her shorts and was going to sit out by eh pool. She would be the only one as it was 40 something that day. She actually went to the pool in shorts and sat down on a chair and was confused and cold. How could Florida be cold? She went back to the condo and pondered. She still did not turn on the TV to check on the weather. She also was devoid of any clothing that resembled warm clothing. She has no warm clothes in Boca. How could this be? Not sure but that is my mom.

When I called her I told her to get some warm clothes. She lamented about an outfit never worn and not packed that was warm. She rejected the warm attire because it is warm in Florida. Knowing my mom she would buy one warm outfit and think magically that she would need that maybe some day in the far future. I watched the weather and called her back the next day and instructed her to buy a few warm outfits. I told her it would be chilly for at least a week. She said okay and then talked about sunning and swimming tomorrow. She also said she bought summer foods which translated into oranges, strawberries, and mangoes. She was hungry. It seemed pretty odd that I had to instruct my mother what foods to buy. Isn't it supposed to be the other way round? I started to mention canned goods such as soup and chili and I was interrupted. Chili is too heavy. It is Florida and it is hot so who could eat chili? Once I was allowed to finish the sentence I hope the words penetrated. The point of chili and canned goods is that they last a while so if you want something “heavy” you have it. Stocking up is not a sin. It is wise. So I hope the stocking up and preparing idea sunk in. Probably not. I will not call today. I will let my mom go out again in her shorts and hope she gets the message that for now it is cold in Boca.