We did it! We succeeded in persuading Mom to let us cut off her rings. This may seem like a small thing, but the thought and effort we put into preparing Mom and finding the right people to help was daunting. I first noticed in December that Mom’s rings were tight on her fingers. I didn’t mean to be oblivious to her plight, but I admit that I avoided taking responsibility for Mom’s personal hygiene. Ingrained in me was the lesson, as we are taught in the Torah, that we should

My mom’s instinct for social interaction is incredibly strong. When we are out on the streets of the city, we often pause in our rambling to say hello to people we know. Often, though, it’s random strangers who are targets of her sincere and infectious cheerfulness. We stopped into several jewelry stores to check on the methods they use to remove rings. (Yes, I’m still planning to have Mom’s rings removed, though how we’re going to convince Mom to go along with it is another

We tried unsuccessfully to take Mom’s rings off today. In addition to her wedding and engagement ring, Mom wears four other rings, each one tightly hugging her fingers, so much so that even with liberal amounts of lubrication, the rings do not come off. She’s been wearing them for so long that her fingers have shaped themselves around the rings. Mom does not have pain in her fingers from her rings. They are not (yet) cutting off circulation. But they look like they might. The