DAY 732: Two Years Later

Exactly two years ago today, Mom and Emily took that fateful horseback ride, the last of the 2006 season and what everybody thought for a while was the last of Mom's life.

It wasn't. She's alive and healing, living back at home, driving, shopping, cooking meals, gardening, and even taking walks occasionally. She's a little worse for the wear, with one eye gone blind, a stiff left arm, and damaged lungs that require oxygen support, but she's still with us and in some ways her old self again.

The big news of the year is that in August she went on her first horseback ride since the accident. That came as a shock to many, given what happened on her last ride, but horse people understand what was going on. There's an old saying among horse people: Get back on the horse. No matter how bad the fall, you always get back on. Mom did.

I called her on Aug. 9 to see how the ride had gone, and she told me: "I never did have a fear of horses. I slept the whole time [I was in the hospital]. I always knew I'd ride again, I just didn't know when."

I visited home in September. Emily, Mom, and I took a walk to see the turning aspen leaves. Here we are on that day:


The challenges of living have skittered back into Mom's life. She thinks about money. She worries about Daniel and Charlie doing poorly in school. She watches news about the economy and the presidential election.

All of that is good. It means she's still with us, for which I'm most grateful.