I have spent the last 4 days visiting my parents. For those of you who don't know, my Mom is in the last stages of Alzheimer's. What determines a "stage" I'm not sure and I don't really care. My Mom was always strongly independent and active. She loved to travel, live on her own, enjoy her family and her pets. After retirement in 1999, she moved to Florida and lived next to my sister in her own mobile home. She got a part time job and enjoyed her time and her money! Sometimes she enjoyed spending money she didn't have!! But don't we all!! We lived in Florida for almost 2 years from 2007 to 2009 helping take care of her when she was first diagnosed with Alzheimer's. We got the wonderful job of taking her to the doctor for evaluation, watching her try to answer questions she didn't know the answer too, repeat this sequence of words, tell me what this is....on and on! Trying to explain that what we had to do was for her safety and her own good. That my job was to keep her as independent as possible for as long as possible! Of course, she told us she didn't have the "A" word! She wouldn't even say it! Then it was, "I just want to know how the doctor is going to take this thing out of my head!"
Then we had to take her driver's license away and then her car! Of course, she thought I was just being mean to her. We left in 2009 to travel and workcamp in California. She lived next to my sister for another year and in 2010 we moved her back to Ohio where we have more family to watch over her. She lived in a "senior" apartment right across the street from my sister for a year, and then in April of 2011, we moved her into a nursing home. She is now in the Alzheimer's unit here close to family.
Someone goes almost everyday to see her and make sures she eats. She doesn't know us any more. It is all very sad and this story has been told hundreds and thousands of times around the world. Today she repeated "I" "Love" "Donna" for me. Of course she had no idea what she was saying or to who! But I treasured it. It might be the last time I ever here it from her. It probably will be.
But as sad as all of this is, I rest assured that my Mom knows the Lord as her Saviour and that one day we will meet again in Heaven!! There will be no more sorrow, no more pain and no more saddness and tears! We will be reborn with totally healthy bodies and will spend our days praising our Lord. We will have all of eternity to be together and to enjoy each other! This gives me a PEACE that surpasses all understanding!! I am so thankful for this peace and this knowledge! And I am thankful for all the pictures I ever took of Mom, good or bad!! I treasure the happy memories and choose to forget the bad ones! In the end, we must live one day at a time, because that is all we have, and enjoy it as if it were our last! It might be the last one we remember!!
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