I wrote this in my Moments with Mama during her 9 year battle with Alzheimers. It was two days after Christmas not knowing we’d just had our last one together. December 27th. I wanted to write this jubilant post about the new year. There are so many things I’m excited about despite the circumstances but
dementia
Christmas with Mama…
We just had our third Christmas without Mama. Wow. As I run into people almost daily who are going through Alzheimers with someone they love, it is a constant reminder of the journey, one I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. While it is sometimes difficult, it means so much to me when someone asks
Permanence…
I walked in the back door like I always do. It was early one morning recently, before the sun had risen, and there he was…. sitting at the table. He never does that. It almost scared me. The words we’d all felt losing Mama seemed to be captured in that one little moment sitting at
Mama’s Shoes.
Mama’s been gone a while now and as many of you can relate, it seems like ten years and it seems like last week. Since she passed, we slowly but surely have gone through things of hers which never gets easier. It’s funny what you learn about someone, even those you’ve loved your whole life,
Bus Trip to Healing.
279 days ago, Mama went to heaven. Part of me wanted to run behind her and part of me left with her. Alzheimers did all it could to take from us, and yes, it succeeded in taking two things most precious ~ Mama and her memories. But she won in the end by gaining back
Little Notes.
Caroline’s birthday is next week and so odd it’s timing. I opened a journal this morning I’d not used in a while and in it was this note Mama had written herself obviously as a little reminder we needed to or were taking Caroline out on June 23rd. The odd squiggly lines around it, so
I’m not motherless.
Just recently, I was at Mama’s, and on occasion, Daddy and I will go through a cabinet or drawer and see what in the world she’d tucked away. In a cabinet we’d been in before was this photo, really big photo, hard to miss, but somehow we had. I don’t know that I’d ever seen
The Gift.
Twenty-four days ago, my Mama went to heaven. It’s taken me these three weeks to put this on paper because it’s so precious to me and it’s hard to share right now… it’s on my heart every day. When someone passes, there always seems to be interesting things that happen, signs either not noticed before
The Bouquet.
I share this here so I can keep it with memories I’ve kept of Mama. I wrote it a few nights ago, a short time before she left us. I was watching her breath, her little heart struggling, and I was trying to envision her journey as she left us here and went to heaven. Daddy
Another Gift.
This week, I experienced something that may seem so insignificant to some, especially if you’ve not…
Letters to Linda.
Mom’s doctor made a house call today to see what had changed with her in these last couple of weeks. When he left, we were all changed. He told us he’s fairly certain she’s had a stroke. We were not really shocked because a couple of weeks ago, we saw drastic changes pretty much overnight.
This Side of Heaven.
It was such a hot July day and we planned to get Mama to the beach for one last time before she went to heaven. It sounds almost uneasy to say it that way but it was the simple truth. At that point, she’d had dementia for nine years, her body was deteriorating before our
