June 7 – “Something special”

 

 

So what did we do for our anniversary?  That was apparently the question of the day yesterday.  We did hear it a time or two.  It was not that hugely different of a day, actually.  In the morning after we got Mom to Libbie's Place Chris immediately went to work making two dresses for Cailyn.  One has M&M's figures on it and the other has Tinkerbell flying around on it.  Very cute.  While she did that I finished up the first draft of Sunday's teaching.  Still barreling through the Book of Esther.  We went out for lunch to Shrimp and Stuff.  That was our something special for me.  It was great as usual, except we had to share our experience with the hundreds of tourists who have discovered it now.  Then we took the self-guided tour around town of all the tree sculptures that were made with a chain saw after Hurricane Ike killed all the trees in Galveston.  Some  were very ornate.  Some were quite simple.  Some were, well, kind of ugly.  This was our something special for Chris.  And finally, we stopped on the way home at WalMart.  I told you it was not all that different from a regular day.  We wanted to buy a new rug for the nursery at church.  We had to throw away the old one.  It was pretty much beyond the realm of salvation by shampoo.  But that was our something special for someone else.  Great way to spend an anniversary.  Can't say we have made it a point to follow that plan every year – do something special for each of us and then do something together that makes the day special for someone else – but it sure was a satisfying way to spend the day.

 

Mom's memory is really getting worse.  Yesterday she told us that she wanted to go "across the street" (to the house she used to live in), because she had to talk to her mother.  Chris told her that her mother wasn't over there anymore.  A confused look came over her face, and Mom replied, "But I was just talking to her about something."  Then she asked, "Where is she, then?"  Chris responded by asking where she was when she talked to her.  She suggested checking her room since we have moved everything from there over here.  Great answer.  Mom shuffled back into her room and moved on with the day.  I remember how much grief Dad went through when, in his Alzheimer's confusion, he asked about his mother, and Mom told him that his mother was dead.  We'll have to watch her pretty close now if she thinks she still lives across the street.  Although it might be a great way to get to know our neighbors.

 

2 John 6 says, "And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love."

 

Father, walk gently with Mom as she rediscovers past events.  Let her rediscover more happy ones than sad ones.  Amen.