We are family

One of the nurses asked me today why I come everyday.  My answer was simply "She's my mother".  Mary said that she wouldn't do it for her mother and that my mom and I must be close.  I told her the truth, mom and I didn't have a good relationship but we didn't have a bad relationship either.  I love her because she's my mom and she loves me because I'm her daughter.  We would fight and argue a lot and I really can't think of one thing that we ever saw eye to eye on.   I would disown her sometimes and she would go to extremes to try to get me to do things her way but it was 'our' relationship, it was "OUR' relationship.  I know that if the roles were reversed and I was the one sick and unable to care for myself that my mother would be there caring for me and if someone were to ask her the same thing she would say "She's my daughter".
I then told Mary about my cousin Carrie-lynn.  I told her how Carrie came from her home in England, with a toddler in tow,  to care for my aunt Jackie who recently passed away after a hard battle with cancer and that Carrie was there fighting with her.  I told her about my grandma and how when grandpa couldn't or wouldn't put her in a facility she came to live with us for a quite some time.  I told her how when Auntie Jackie split from her husband she moved her three kids and dogs to live with us in Canmore until she could get her own place and I would go everyday after school to check in on my cousins.   I told her how when aunt Jackie decided to move up north that uncle Reg and his family helped out how they could.  I told how my mom would to Belize every 16 months to see and help uncle Gene who had foolishly moved down there to chase a dream.   I told her how when Uncle Gene was broke and stuck in Belize with a sick common-law wife, his sisters brought him back and auntie Jackie then helped him to get set up in Campbell River.   I told her how when my cousin Lyndon passed away at a young age leaving two small boys and wife, everyone did what they could and now Maggie is helping out Uncle Gene.  I told her how three weeks ago, my brother Doug lifted and carried mom out of bed and to his car and then drove to Canmore so she could see the old house and the neighborhood for one last time.  I told her that through my own struggles with my substance abuse disorder, my family (except for my brother David, but he's given up on the family too) have never given up on me.  Mary's reaction was "wow".
My uncle Reg came to visit us today.  He stopped at the house first and dad and I and him chatted.  I made mom some super juice (beets, carrots, kale and apples) and then told him when I'm done, mom will be finished with her nap and we can go and see her.  His reaction surprised me "Why", he said.  "She won't recognize me anymore".  Both dad and I kind of chuckled and told him that she would.
When we got there, mom was still napping.  She awoke and when she got more alert I said to her "Look who's here, who is it?"  She struggled to get the words out and she said "It's my brother Rennie".  Uncle Reg laughed and said "Close enough" and I'm sure I saw a tear in his eye, but he definitely had a happy smile on his face.
We stayed and visited in mom's room.  We chatted about this and that and then I said to my uncle.  "I hope she makes it to Christmas because that would too much for you to lose both of your sisters in one year".
Uncle Reg agreed and then he said that our family is losing it's matriarchs.  Then the only people Uncle Gene can rely on are him, my cousin Brent, and me and dad.  Then it hit me.  I'm eldest girl of the next generation.  I'm the next matriarch.  I better keep my shit together and I can think of no better reason to do that.  Someone has to keep the stories, recipes, history and the loving dysfunction alive for the next generation, so that they will always know where their roots are and they are deep in this family tree.
We may not talk to each other daily or even monthly.  I don't know every detail of their lives or what is always going on.  But this much I know for sure, when push comes to shove and someone in the family needs help, well someone in the family will be there. Why, because we are family.