If it's not one thing, it's your mother....

I think I heard that saying on Oprah. Several weeks ago I got a call saying my stepdad fell in the bathtub and cracked some ribs. Ralph is going to be 89 in a few months and he is a big husky guy so visioning this was hard to do. He was taken to the hospital and they quickly gave him some pain medicine. My sister, Paula, took mother to see him and they said he was talking strange and acting even stranger. The hospital said he was over medicated and confused because he was in the hospital. They also found a mass, they think in his thyroid. Paula has had to deal with taking mother to the hospital and trying to get information out of the nurses and seeing what all can be done. Apparently mother and Ralph do not want to be bothered with aforementioned mass. In all of this mother has had to deal with being responsible for bills and such. Mother use to drive when they lived in a town of 1500 people but since they are in a larger town, I don't think it is considered a city just yet, she has decided driving there is not for her. Paula is scared to push her into trying. I have talked to Paula about this and we both came to the conclusion we are afraid of our mother. There are 5 of us siblings, 2 boys and 3 girls. The boys have no problem telling mother what she needs to hear. The younger sister also has no problem telling her. But Paula and I are scared of hurting her feelings or making her angry at us. By the way, we are the oldest siblings. So goes our issues of trying to deal with the fact that Ralph is in rehab and mother needs a ride daily to see him and Paula working and me 1500 miles away. Paula is the only sibling that lives in the same town as mother. I feel like I should be up there but I have some responsibilities here in Baton Rouge and cannot get up there until August. Funny how no one seems to feel like they need to go help except the older ones in the family. How strange is that?