Mom was a woman of many talents. An organizer extraordinaire. A fabulous cook. A deep thinker. A hospitality queen. A servant and lover of people. An encourager. A follower of Christ. An empathetic ear. A noticer of details. A lover of color and design. And a memory maker. One life contains so many layers, doesn’t … Continue reading Mom’s Eulogy
Our Dementia Journey
Memories
Funny how memories work when you are grieving. They come unbidden and they are bittersweet. Mostly sweet. Mostly, I smile…sometimes with tears…grateful tears that Mom is whole again. Birthdays, Christmases, family trips, times with the grandkids, even childhood memories from when I was a little girl, all come forward as I flip through pictures. I … Continue reading Memories
Love
I’m on my porch this morning. It is cool and the birds seem grateful for that fact. The sun is playing with the trees and the result is a light show sprinkling the rays all around me like a disco ball. My fingers take the cue and dance across the keyboard. Today they are writing … Continue reading Love
Surprised by Joy
The last few days I have been resting, processing, planning, and resting some more. The cumulative physical exhaustion of the past few years seems to have caught up to me. Yet, it is different than the heavy sleep/sleepless roller coaster of those years. During the dementia journey, it has felt like trying to sleep with … Continue reading Surprised by Joy
The Last Week
You know that even though I haven’t been posting, I have still been writing. After all, this blog is an e-journal of sorts. My diary, so others will know they are not alone in their feelings. This is what I have written in the last week of Mom’s life. It’s long. If you just want … Continue reading The Last Week
It’s Over
Dearest Readers, Our long goodbye is over. Mom breathed her last today and now she is whole. We have stopped counting down her days here and now we begin counting up the days until we are with her again there. We feel as if we have finished a marathon. Exhausted, but we have run a … Continue reading It’s Over
Teamwork!
There are three of us. We are a team. From the beginning, we rallied ourselves for the long haul that dementia would inviably bring. It has been every bit as difficult as we thought it would be. We are storm weathered, battered, and exhausted, but we still have each other and that makes all the … Continue reading Teamwork!
It’s Here!!!
We interrupt your regularly scheduled summer for breaking news…our author’s preview books have arrived!! We can hold them in our hands! The cover is beautiful and smooth enough to pet! The colors are soothing. The picture is peaceful. It looks just like we had imagined it! The inside is easy to read. Each week is … Continue reading It’s Here!!!
Sneak Peek
Here is a sneak peek of what the content of Navigating the Caregiver's Journey is like... Week 41...Caregiving takes courage. To get up every day and continue to do the things that must be done without fanfare or recognition takes bravery. It is not the kind of courage that runs into battle with swords drawn. … Continue reading Sneak Peek
Pre-Sales!!
When Mom started having memory issues 7 years ago, she was concerned. She was having difficulty finding words. She was forgetting familiar faces at church. She couldn’t remember directions to places she was accustomed to driving. The doctor said it was likely age-related memory loss. She stopped using the computer. She stopped cooking. Dad helped … Continue reading Pre-Sales!!