I met her caregivers yesterday, and they seemed so kind and sweet and caring. I stayed long enough and so did my husband to observe how gentle they handled her. The hospital folks are so overworked and busy, they just didn't have the time for any extra spoiling except to do their job. Plus, these new caregivers get to know their patients - they are assigned to certain ones and just those few. Change is so hard with Alzheimers, as most of you know. And bless her heart, she's had to change SO much during this past year.
She's getting quieter. She doesn't talk nearly as much as she used to. She's content most of the time, or WAS in her Memory Care Facility. She enjoys her family even if she's quiet and she doesn't like to be out of her apartment even to come to our house for very long. I have to say tho that she loves going to church with us. She keeps to herself, doesn't much like being around the other people in her facility. Most of them are even worse off than she is and she senses that there is a difference. She likes to stay in her apartment, watch the country music station (she says she's waiting on my son to appear on there), do a few crossword puzzles or read her Bible and sleep. We see her everyday.
Here's my sweet mother in law and me at a recent activity they had at her facility. There are different church groups around town that go the nursing homes and sing & play music, and my mother's church choir group came and sang this particular day. So we went to listen. Even my daughter came.
I have to say that I've had the sweetest mother in law that you could ever have. Both my in-laws have been such a blessing in my life and in the lives of my children. She adores them. Mema and Bepa had no other grandkids but mine and so they fairly doted on them. It's been so wonderful, as I've said before, to have positive reinforcement on raising Christian children in the form of grandparents, including my parents, too. My kids have had that Christian influence on both sides, and we never had to worry about babysitters. The Lord has really blessed our family.
I've often wondered what it would be like to not have family. My husband has a woman about my age that works at his office. Her parents are gone, she has no husband, no siblings - NO ONE. How sad is that? She doesn't have a church family either for she is not a religious person. How in the world can one get by in this life without God, first of all, but without a family? How lonely that must feel. I've had this heavy weight on my heart lately for these folks that are without. I know there must be plenty.
We as Christians who have a physical family, a loving Father and a church family need to reach out to these people. They CAN have a heavenly Father who will love them more than any earthly father can, and they CAN have a church family to be there for encouragement, love and support and to take away the lonliness that they sometimes must feel. I know most churches now have singles ministries, but what can we do on a daily basis to help these folks to feel loved & valued?
OK, I'm preaching to myself today. I'm guilty of thinking of these things and then letting the time go by and not actually doing anything. Shame on me. I remind myself that if I do these things unto the least of my brethren then I'm doing it for Him. My daughter is learning to step out of her comfort zone - I've got to step out of mine.
