[Magdalen] Magdalen] gas prices?

[James Oppenheimer]

Heart-breaking, but necessary.  Bless you for having the gumption to do
what was right.

James W. Oppenheimer
*“If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better
for people coming behind you, and you don’t do it, you're wasting your time
on this Earth.”  -- *Roberto Clemente

On Sat, Oct 25, 2014 at 4:14 PM, Don Boyd <thedonboyd at austin.rr.com> wrote:

> When I came to believe that my mom's driving made her a danger "to self
> and/or others," I called her ophthalmologist and told him what I'd seen.
> He said, get her in here and I'll do the rest.  So he had his assistant
> call her to schedule a visit (her memory was by then far enough gone that
> she didn't notice that the between-visits interval was shorter than usual),
> and as usual she drove herself to the appointment.  Examination finished,
> the doc told Mom, "Mrs Boyd, I'm sorry, but I have to ask you to give me
> your car keys.  If, knowing what I know now about your eyesight,  I let you
> leave here able to drive, I could be sued into bankruptcy when you hit
> somebody...and you will hit somebody--maybe not on your way home today, but
> soon.  And you have to promise me that you will never, ever, drive again."
>
> She said, "Don put you up to this, didn't he?"  And he said, "Well, he did
> tell me he was worried about your driving," and she said (meekly), "I knew
> this day was coming, I just didn't know it would be today," and handed him
> the keys.  The doc's assistant having called me when she scheduled Mom's
> appointment, I was waiting in the parking lot (my wife had dropped me off),
> and the doc walked Mom out to her car and handed me the keys.  He told her,
> "Mrs. Boyd, I know this is upsetting, but I want you to stay alive as long
> as you can and this is the most important thing I can do today to help with
> that.  Now, when you get home, give Don any spare keys you have, and he'll
> take the car to his place so you won't be tempted."  Mom (fighting back
> tears), "Yes, I'll do that.  Old age is not for sissies."  And the nearest
> thing to a complaint I heard from her after that was a comment on one of
> the volunteer drivers who took her to medical appointments after that:
> "She's a worse driver than I was when Dr Thorne took my keys away from me."
>
> Don in Austin
>