Beautiful, River.

I am sure your mom will be alright, given time. Your dad will always be with her, no doubt, but she'll be living her life. I'm certain of it because when you talk about your parents all I see is mine. They seemed to have a very, very similar relationship to yours - dad out there doing things, working, bringing home the money and mom taking care of everything at home and part time working, too. They were a little older than yours, your picture of the 70s would have been my parents in the 60s (my siblings are quite a bit older than me). Then when my dad died at age 64, twenty nine years ago now, we feared for my mom same as you are now. She had always been absolutely dependent on my dad, never did anything on her own or for herself. It took time for sure and I flew home (from Oz) and spent vacations with my mom in the UK, eventually she moved out of their house and into a smaller place and she started to go out and meet people - at sixty two, playing tennis and games in seniors' places and lived her life. We were immensely proud of her. She, too, passed earlier this year at ninety one having had a sometimes hard but good life.

Be there for her but you cannot live her life for her. She will make her decisions as I am positive she did while your dad was around - you just never saw it. Neither did we.