This had to have been the Holy Week from hell with both sisters in town at my mother's house. Sibling rivalry in remission surfaced big time and I, the eldest, designated peacemaker, am now the only one here.

My mother has been living with congestive heart failure for years with numerous trips to the hospital. Once her blood pressure went so high the cardiologist thought the machine was broken. As my mother chatted with the young male nurse, the doctor said in astonishment, "with those numbers, she should be stroking out."

One sister always comes to visit with an agenda, dragging my mother all over creation for bizarre things on her own "to do list". The other sister patiently organizes, cleans, and does my mother's taxes. I seem to have lost track of what religion I am.

My mother had several episodes of low blood pressure and light-headedness, then her blood pressure spiked, her pulse was erratic, so the sisters left and I took her to the doctor. She was in atrial fibrillation, not our first heart related rodeo together.

Good Friday at 5pm, he changed her meds again, but said her recent echocardiogram showed problems that needed to be addressed by either a pacemaker or "some clipping of her wires". ASAP, which my mother thinks means sometime next week or perhaps in the summer. So, I am here until I can figure out what needs to happen. This was not a Good Friday. Hopefully, Holy Saturday will be better.