Celebrating Womanhood is pretty much what we in the UWIB (Unique Women in Business) do every day, but that's our blog carnival topic this month, too!
There are many things to celebrate about women, if I do say so myself! But what comes to my mind immediately is the tremendous strength we have to get through life's toughest times. This strength is so well known that family members and friends turn to their women for comfort, advice, support and relief. Women are steadfast, or stubborn depending on how you look at it, and therefore can be counted on to reach within themselves to find that inner strength when it's needed.
One fairly recent example in my life was watching my bonus Mom, my Mother-in-law, care for her husband of fifty years who slowly succumbed to Alzheimer's Disease. If you've cared for someone with this terrible disease or are close to someone who has, you know the almost superhuman patience, emotional strength, and determination that's required no matter how much love is there. To protect her children from the worst of it Mom kept most of the day-to-day difficulties to herself. It took its toll on her, but she's now finding joy again with her family and friends although of course missing the wonderful husband she remembers. I thank her for showing me how to get through this stage of life gracefully.
The other recent example of female strength for me lasted nearly 77 years through a couple generations. When my Aunt Ann was born something happened at the hospital and she was deprived of oxygen long enough to cause some brain damage. She was never able to hold a job and was diagnosed in her 50's of being emotionally at a level of a 13 year old. She lived with her mother, my Grandmother, until my Grandmother's passing in 1992.
The sisters in Atlantic City during WWII
As children we never knew that anything was different. We played games with the whole family and laughed together. It wasn't until a couple years before my Grandmother's death that I really realized how difficult it had been on the caregiver. My Grandmother for the first and only time asked me when she ever got to retire. I think she felt awful for voicing it, but I'm glad she did, as it made her not a martyr but someone who had shown love and strength throughout her life. She had steadfastly raised her girls during WWII while her husband was a Captain of a submarine in the Pacific. She then raised two boys upon his return until they were in High School when she lost the love of her life to a heart attack and ended up a widow with two young men during the Vietnam War.
