gettin my chain yanked

I've had my chain yanked so much in the past month I now cringe when I hear the links rattle. Although I love my mom, I love her because love is a choice. When I say I "survived" my childhood - it is a literal statement. My friends called her the dragon lady and she reveled in it. She was always quick witted, predatory - a survivor. It makes her confusion and her frailty alarming to me. I have my own claws and fangs but she was always alpha and any hackling up on my part was met with instant teeth around my throat. I can and will protect her but there will be ugly snot cries in my future - not because I am weak - but because I am just as dangerous as she was. Cancer and dementia don't play but then neither do I. I am my mother's daughter. The only difference between us at the core are the choices we have made.