Remembering

Two years ago today I was walking across the grounds of the Carnton Plantation in Franklin, Tennessee with my sister Lori, when we got the call that Mother had given up her battle with Alzheimer’s earlier the same morning. It is a horrible disease that robs you of the person you love before they physically leave you. You mourn in little bits until it is finally over. You don’t mourn then, because your loved one is finally free.

The disease had been creeping into Mother’s brain for years. There were little hints along the way. But as horrible as the disease can be, there are moments of humor and grace. Mother relived some of her favorite times and believed they just happened. Like the day I called and she asked me if I was as tired as she was from yesterday’s activities. When I asked what activities, she had been in Champaign-Urbana at U of I’s Dad’s Day activities in 1975. She was right, I was tired the next day nearly forty years ago.

When she started forgetting people’s names, she never forgot her son-in-laws’ or grandson’s names. The men made a bigger impression on her, they always did.

At her 80th birthday party she held court in the middle of the dancing and eating. I’m not sure she knew who all of us were but she loved being the center of attention! And she got to meet her newest great grandson. She held him without any instruction about what to do, those arms still remembered how to hold a baby after all the practice she’d had.

Today I am remembering my Mother the Brownie and 4H leader. The mother who taught you and your friends how to knit. The mother who took us school shopping into the big city of Chicago to visit with her sister, Auntie Shirl and Uncle Gene. The mother who wanted us to see the world starting with summer camps in the Keys or riding in Kentucky or the Art Institute. The mother who swore we’d go to college even if she had to go and sit with us every day.

Today I remember Mother before the ravages of the devil’s disease. Rest in peace.