Mom’s New Transportation Adventure
September 2024 Issue
Inspirations for Better Living
My mom decided to give up driving and sell her car after she had a scary incident when her foot slipped off the brake and onto the gas pedal. Neuropathy had been numbing her feet for several years now. She didn’t hit anything or anyone, but she worried she might hurt someone next time. How awesome was she for making that decision for the safety of others? Just when I thought the parent child role reversal situation meant I wouldn’t be looking to her as a role model anymore and BAM … she whipped out another inspiring lesson on doing the right thing. Moms are cool like that.
Selling her car was easy from a technical standpoint. Dropping a couple of Facebook posts about it was useless but handing out flyers and talking to people face-to-face worked like a charm. The car sold for exactly what we wanted to get out of it and the buyer got a great car at a fair price. The best transactions were always mutually beneficial.
Emotionally speaking, selling the car was a lot harder for Mom. Having conversations about how this decision would impact her daily life and living that impacted life were two entirely different things. Being out of milk and bread wasn’t as simple as driving a couple of blocks to the grocery store anymore. Even getting the mail was too far to walk if it was raining or the temperature soared into the 100s. She took care of herself for so long; relying on others was hard.
Life resets many times over the decades, and this was a big reset for Mom and me.
I liked to think things through and plan with potential consequences in mind. I started making a mental list of all that we needed to do to adjust to Mom’s lack of transportation. We would need to clean out the car, advertise it for sale, and negotiate a fair deal. She would have to stop the insurance and return the tag for a refund. What about buying a mobility scooter and ordering groceries online? What contingencies would we need for weather issues?
As soon as the list became overwhelming, I had to take myself out of planner mode and focus on one or two things at a time.
