A few days before my daughter and I were planning to visit my mother, she called with a surprising request: “I’d like to go shopping. Will you take me?”

Wow. My mother has not been in a grocery or clothing store in more than a year because it’s been difficult and painful for her to walk and stand. Even when we offered to pick up a few items for her, a pair of pants and a blouse, she declined. She never really talked about it but we figured it was hard for her to think about appearance when she was feeling so poorly and didn’t really go anywhere except doctor’s offices.

Since knee replacement surgery in March, she’s been stepping out. I was thrilled to take her shopping; she wanted to arrive just as the store opened so she could easily maneuver her walker, the kind with a built-in seat for rest breaks. My 15-year-old daughter went with us.

Mom found a couple pair of pants, two blouses and a nightgown. My daughter left us to look at the trendy clothes in the junior department. We were in and out of the store in a little over an hour.

“That must have felt good,” I said to my mother, “to be able to go shopping and find a couple outfits.” She turned to me as we were riding in the car and smiled. “It did,” she said. “It really did.”

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