I can sit that way, but not for very long.. my right knee doesn’t like it anymore. It’s better if I fold both legs in the same direction, so my left foot is touching my right knee, but my right foot is back by my right hip. I can sit that way for quite a while.
A funny anecdote— a few years back at a local outdoor Maker Faire, I was with our local Weavers Guild booth, and I had gotten sort of bored with what I was spinning on my spinning wheel, so I decided to do something different. I sat down on the ground like that, not crisscross, and I was spinning cotton with my India takli spindle and talking about cotton, and Mahatma Gandhi’s charkha, and so on. One woman came by and was staring at me. I started my explanation about how cotton needs be spun with a great deal of twist, etc. and she stopped me. “Oh, I know,” she said. “I am a spinner too. But… how are you sitting like that?!. LOL.
How very, very sad. Offering my condolences and sympathy for you and your family.