April 16 – “Reading”

 

 

I found out another detail about Mom's visitors in the wee hours of the morning.  Chris filled me in on the way to church.  It seems the lady sitting in the chair was warning Mom to be careful of listening to the other lady – the one who was pulling her out of the bed and doing things with the light fixture.  Now that was an interesting development.  We wondered together as we remembered the three mysterious ladies who were always giving Dad fits when he was suffering from Alzheimer's.  One of them was obviously Mom, but that left two female interlopers in his life as well.

 

Mom and Chris never made it up to church yesterday.  Well, I guess Chris technically did.  She drove me up there and went back home to work on getting Mom up.  Not so successful this time.  It was one of her days to slump over her walker and pretend to collapse.  Then when we don't leap to grab her and help her up, she simply stands herself back up and walks on to the couch or to her bed where she can collapse and go back to sleep.  It's a very strange thing.  She ended up sleeping most of the day again.  The people at church were great.  They asked about how she was doing and we even had a special time of prayer for her when it became evident that they weren't going to make it.

 

One thing was different, though.  She asked me about reading the Bible.  Understand that the only reading she has done for, well, years, has been from the captions for the hard of hearing that come up on the TV screen and on letters and cards she has received in the mail.   She said, "Everybody talks about reading the Bible all the time, but where do you begin, at the front?"  I went and got her a large print Good News version (that's one of the simplest ones we have).  I directed her to start reading First John, then let me know when she finishes.  So for the next hour or so off and on while we watched TV, she would read … out loud.  It was actually kind of cool.  She seemed very comforted, and she was also quite proud of herself.  After she finished a chapter she called out to me, "Kelley.  I'm reading First John."  I told her that was quite impressive and gave her a "Way to go" thumbs up, which she eagerly returned.  It was also kind of eerie.  I remember her telling me that before her mother died one of the things she started doing was reading the Bible a lot. 

 

1 Peter 3:15-16 says, "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander."

 

Father, thank you for the encouragement of the folks at church.  Bless them.  Amen.