Good News from the home front.

A few months ago my Grandma had a stroke and she has been at a rehab center up until this week.  I received this letter from my mom to let me know how the move to their house went.  I couldn't help but share the good news.  

I want to thank everyone who prayed about Glenda's move from Shiloh Health and Rehab to our home.  The Lord certainly helped and it went VERY smooth.

Glenda and I left Shiloh first.  At that time I just told her I wanted her to come to my house for supper and that Jerry would be coming in his own car.  Actually, Jerry stayed back to take all of her things out of the room.  We did it that way because we didn't know if she would understand why we were taking things out of the closet or why we were taking her pictures off the wall, etc.  We thought she might become distressed by us taking her things down.

So  after Glenda and I got in the car, I started to tell her we were having beans and cornbread for supper.  I could tell she liked the sound of that.  When I said were going to have some onions too, she laughed out loud.   We made small talk along the way the best we could.   Sometimes I could understand her, and sometimes I couldn't.  But we were both happy on the way home.   

When we started getting close to the house she recognized several things and she was clearly happy to be coming to places that looked familiar.  When we got to the road where her younger brother lives she pointed to it and said, "There's Lavon's place."  Actually it was Loy's place, but at least she recognized that it was the road to a brother's home.  (She calls all of us by the wrong name quite frequently.)

When we pulled into our driveway she was really happy to be here and clapped her hands.  I helped her into the house and let her sit down on the couch.  I showed her the roses I had purchased for her and told her that we love her.  She has always liked beautiful flowers and we admired them for awhile.

Then I put the flowers down and I told her I was going to warm up the beans and cornbread.   I noticed when I stepped into the kitchen she got up and went into the room we have used in the past as her bedroom.  By the time she came back into the living room, Jerry had made it home and she told him, "When I went in there I said, 'That's my bed.'"   Later she told him, "That's my bedroom."   And Jerry told her we wanted her to live here and stay with us.  

During suppertime Glenda made several confused statements:   Have we been here before?  Where do you live? Did Mama go to town?     

But after supper God gave me another incredible gift when Glenda spoke clearly one more time.  I went to the chair where she was sitting and hugged her and said, "I'm glad you're here."   She hugged me back and said, "I'm glad I'm here too."   If you knew how often Glenda still speaks with sounds that cannot be understood as words, you'd realize what a great blessing it was to hear her verbalize pleasure at moving into our home.  When it was time for bed I helped her get her pajamas on and tucked her into bed with another hug and kiss.  

We are smart enough to know that when you bring someone with dementia into your home there will be challenging and frustrating times.  But today was absolutely beautiful!  Please pass this news to others to prayed for us today.   We thank all of you for your prayers. 

Mom