my grandma celebrated her 81st birthday on April 15th. She is the stage of alzheimer's where she is very sweet and child like in many ways. Everything is new to her. Up until now she has always remembered us. On her birthday my cousin Crystal who lives very close to the home my grandmother is in ... so she visits often... anyway... my grandma didn't know her... even after telling her it's Crystal your granddaughter she still didn't know her. Crystal went home and cried.... my heart is breaking for my grandma.... Alzheimers is robbing my grandma from her memories of her family.... the family that loves her so much. It is one of those things that just doesn't seem fair... it has been on my heart since I heard what happened to Crystal and it even stopped me from visiting my grandma this weekend because I wasn't yet prepared to go through the same thing.
But.. now instead this viewing disease as nothing but my grandmother rotting away, then, of course, I will have the same futility and despair that is normal in the situation. But, if I view it as preparation for her to meet the Lord, it makes the situation bearable. If I picture Grandma healed in heaven, it makes the situation hopeful, despite the agony of the journey to get there. If there is one lesson I have learned throughout this, it would be that love is something that can't be destroyed by suffering, and the only thing that we really have to hold onto in the face of this horrible disease is love.
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