meara, I'm so sorry. May there be a best outcome and time with your mom.

Cass, I'm sorry about Shelby. It's so hard to let them go.

On another note, we bought metal mesh patio furniture for several reasons. 1. We had paper wasps, and they will build anywhere, surprising you from one day to the next with a new nest tucked in where you least expect. So you can see through the mesh and deal with wasps before you sit. 2. Our furniture was in the sun from 5AM to 8PM, and the mesh absolutely did not hold heat. You could sit with shorts on and not barbecue the backs of your thighs. 3. It's lightweight, comparitively, and weight was a consideration on a second floor deck. 4. We have thunderstorms almost every afternoon in summer, accompanied by high winds, and sometimes microbursts. We had the patio umbrella in a weight, but we didn't have the base of the umbrella pinned through the weight, and the wind hopped it out of the weight and lifted it into the top of the cherry tree in the back yard. But otherwise, the wind just whooshed through the mesh and didn't mess with the furniture itself. Of course the two-seater swing with canopy got lifted by said canopy, over the front rail and deposited in the front yard. We removed the canopy--microburst didn't care, just lifted it by the seat and let it down a little harder in the front yard. We set it in a shady spot in the backyard and did without a swing after that. Swivel rockers made from metal mesh were almost as good, and didn't attempt to fly.

I heartily recommend the metal mesh furniture for sunny places. It comes in dozens of comfy styles. Our pieces were all painted--or powder coated--in English garden green, and stood up well all year in rain and snow and freezing temps.