You're very lucky if you can do that. Old ways are usually the best ways.
We have shallots, garlic fields and a cow for milk so far as well as a few random things she tinkers with. She basically helps garden and farm as well as take care of my mother while I work in the city and then come home to help out if needed. My days off are nice because we just relax and spend time together. Otherwise we are working to create a self sustaining farm my father left my mother when he passed but she can't do it alone. It's mine essentially, I just couldn't ever kick her out and she has her own floor so we can have privacy. We usually share mealtimes and she has been teaching my wife how to speak Norsk.
It sounds idyllic and like you have a wonderful wife.
Of course you couldn't kick your mother out, so much easier to spend time with and take care of her if she's there. I moved my mom in with me (I have a small 3 bedroom ranch on a slab, lucky you and her, she has her own floor), when she couldn't live on her own anymore. Trying to clean out her house and unload it in the market was a pain in the ass.
I'm so glad we had the time together before she passed. I feel like, she took care of me when I was young, so I, in turn, took care of her when she got old. I think the Japanese have this same philosophy.
We live in a disposable world and people just throw away their aged parents, it's really sad. Mom may not have died in her home but, at least, she didn't die in a nursing home (one of her greatest fears). I know that made her (and me) very happy.
My Mother is very important. She's royalty around here and will always be treated with utmost respect and love. No financial discussions with her was a rule I laid down when my father passed.
She is always going to be protected by me.
I don't care if she has a million dollars. I want her alive and cared for no matter what.
She's my Mother. I would die for her long before I asked for a dollar. I love her beyond belief and she raised me in Europe and the USA. I don't care about money. I just care about her health and longevity.
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