Mom has been working so hard, and you have all been gracing us with your prayers for so many weeks. She can eat a lot of things and feeds herself. She laughs. She can walk, v e r y carefully. She can read and understand what she’s reading…..So, send her e-mails and cards. Our address is 885 1650 Road, Delta, CO 81416 and MOM”S e-mail is dena@drmary.net . She is beginning to find her way to the lunch room and back to her room, MOST times without direction. She always remembers her room number, but can’t seem to always remember to LOOK at the numbers!! She has a sweet disposition and is very grateful and determined.
I’m still greedy in my prayers and asking that Mom be brought back to her independent self, if HE sees it clear. Because, NOW, that’s He’s answered so many of our prayers,……… I’m joyfully….hesitantly……ecstatically…… in a panic…………in a panic because Mom IS doing remarkably well, considering what has happened to her………..because Mom will be coming home……..to MY home VERY soon. AHHHHHHH!!!….Yeah Yah!!! OH MY GOD!!! How will we do it??!!!! HURRAY!!! THANK GOD!!!! Jump up and down and hug everyone in sighe!!!!! OH NO!!???
We’re installing grab bars and monitors. She isn’t quite safe to be left alone, yet. But, I’m hopeful that her congnitive abilities will return and she’ll be able to spend a lot of private time, later. Every day she has a better grasp of where she is and what has happened. She IS a such a people person…….BUT, alone-time is very important to her. Having her live in her garage apartment has been so perfect this past 10 years with us. She can be alone any time she’d like, and Mom does amazing things when no one is looking. She’d never have been able to paint her lovely paintings or write so many pages of her book without the quiet private time that she cherishes so much. The hospital has been hard for many reasons. But, the lack of privacy and control have probably been the hardest thing for Mom to accept.
Each and every day we’ve pushed and strived to head over the rainbow and I DO believe that it’s paying off. In the KANSAS room of my Chiropractic office I have a sculpture that I made of a cow sitting on top of the moon. She’s sitting there very satisfied and is sniffing a rose. The piece is entitled, “Aim High, but STOP to Smell the Roses!” I feel like this is what Mom and we have been doing this past 4 weeks. So far, we’ve been leaping from star to star hoping to end up over the rainbow or sitting on the moon. We’ve really had no idea how high we’d be able to climb, and we’re not finished…………..not quite yet. But, every step of the way has been blessed with love and a wonderful sense of accomplishment. God has been so good to us, letting us have this concentrated time together………..this tryumphant time together. What a wonderful bonding month we’ve had so far. As tiring and exhausting as it’s been, it’s been good for EVERYONE in our family…….and I EVEN think that seeing our faith and perseverance has been good for ALL of those around us…….our friends……the hospital workers who may become passive to it all……. I hope that it has.
Mom and I were visiting on Sunday about how much work we’ve done and at first she said, “Oh, wouldn’t it be awful if we lost it all after all of this……if I died after all YOUR hard work……..or I had another stroke…………after all of this…….”…..and MY reply was that “all of this” was such a gift from God……..Each and every moment that we’ve struggled and taken a step…..learning to open an eye……learning to move a tongue…….swallow a bite……….ESPECIALLY learning to smile and looking in the mirror to find it……….and all the other difficult moments………each one was a moment that not many people get the chance to share……..a moment that stands on its own in my memory……………all by itself and each will live on………I reminded her of something that she’s fostered in me for as long as I can remember………..That none of us live forever and that each little moment is precious…….and that MAYBE, just MAYBE those moments that we are led to struggle so in, may be the most remembered and precious moments of our lives, the moments that people NEED one another. We ended our talk hopeful that God will allow Mom many more productive years, but accepting that even if she was taken from us, today, we would NEVER begrudge the exhausting moments that we’ve spent recently. Thank you, God, for each and every one of them.
As the song says, “Thank God for Small Things in My Life”………..