Dotsie, yes my mom has many relatives all around her in Indiana. Her sister is 90 and still alive, other sibblings as well still alive. She has friends from work that love and visit her sometimes and she is very well known in the town she lives in as she and my stepdad operated a bakery for many years and know everyone. But most stay to themselves and their own familys, she also doesn't get around as much as before so sometimes is lonely BUT hell, we're all lonely sometimes even those of us with family still around constantly. To me loniliness is a natural emotion like any other that rears its ugly head from time to time...
Edelweiss and Gims, I adore my mother and since we are a thousand miles apart neither one gets on the others nerves but even on the phone mom can get me riled up, BUT shes my mom, old, and I respect that fact so I never argue or even seem upset to her. After I hang up sometimes I just scream into a pillow...Ah! And that feels better...