Who Is This Woman?

Dear Mom,

Here we are in a new week. After the craziness that was last week, I guess I did have to wonder a little bit what would be in store for this one. Saturday was a wonderful day that I got to spend at an Iron Sharpens Iron Women's Conference. One of my friends had a free ticket and invited me to go. I was a little hesitant because....well...it's Saturday, my sacred day for sleeping in and relaxing especially after a crazy week. I was hoping to just go hang out at the Berlin Fair or maybe get up to the Big E since it didn't happen on Friday. For some reason (the Lord, I'm sure) I felt that I needed to try to get up and go to this. This meant getting up not much later than I do for school. I was meeting the ladies I was going with at 8. Thankfully it was at the church right up the street, only about 3 minutes away! Well, I did it, I got up, got Bella taken care of, got you taken care of with breakfast, got myself ready to go for a day of refreshment. I left the house around quarter to 8 and got there before 8. I was there all day until 5. I checked on you and Bella at one point, calling to make sure you were OK. You said you were. I hadn't even planned to stay that long, but it was so good I wanted to. I'm glad I did. It definitely was refreshing! Sunday came and once again you didn't want to go to church, that just makes me so sad! I went to mine and was blessed for going. Monday came and when I checked my calendar I noticed that you had physical therapy at 6 that night...ugh. I was just hoping to get home, maybe take a nap and relax. Well, when I told you, you were not happy either because you said you weren't planning on going out that night. Well, that was an obvious statement...you never plan to go out much anymore at night or in the day for that matter. So, I had to bribe you a little bit by telling you that we would go get something to eat while we were out. Well, that put a big smile on your face and next thing I know you are in your room getting your sneakers on. We didn't have to leave for about another half an hour or so, but you were ready. It felt strange to bribe you, but it just shows me how different you have become. This disease is always full of surprises. Another one of those surprises came as we were on our way to physical therapy. We drove by the Christian Bookstore where you used to work years ago. There was one car in the parking lot and you all of a sudden piped up with, "Marcia is the only one there working tonight." Wait.....what??? I couldn't believe what I was hearing so I asked you to repeat it again and you did. You said her car is the only there. So...wow, you remembered and you reasoned. I was pretty surprised by that, it was almost like old times sitting in the car talking with you. I didn't make a big deal about it, but now I had a big smile on my face. I'm not naive enough to think that this is a turning point or anything, I know you still suffer from memory loss, I know you will still have bad days, I know things will get worse. But moments like these I choose to treasure! I guess one reason why I was surprised is because I just showed you pictures of that family about a month ago because the daughter got married, but you didn't recognize her. You worked with her, too, but you didn't seem to recognize her at all, you sort of remembered Marcia and Herman, but I don't think you could recall their names when you saw their pictures. Yet there you are shooting that out there, you definitely caught me off guard. Wow!
Then, when we got to physical therapy, even though you "weren't planning on going out", you did a great job. The therapist even said so. She was stretching you and I don't know if you were channeling your former Richard Simmons/Jane Fonda days or what, but you were stretching better than I have seen you do in a long time! I was so proud of you! That was encouraging to see. You did keep telling her you were tired and needed to rest, but you were doing it. And you were doing well. After therapy I asked you where you wanted to go to eat. You wanted some place where we could take the food home because you were tired. I gave you a few choices of places that were in the area. At first you said Ruby Tuesday's, then you changed your mind and chose McDonald's. That was fine with me because it would be quick and we could get home, I was tired too. But I was so proud of you and the job you did, I know it isn't easy for you. You have been through so much, but you have always remained strong. Stay strong! That will help me to stay strong for you! I love you!