Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Brought closer to God by the help of a sweet woman

Yesterday I got a text message that broke my spirit:

Mamaw has 48 hours to live please be praying for a peaceful transition xo.

Mamaw is my 98 year old great grandmother by marriage who took care of me from 3rd grade to 6th grade.  She is the women who knew things with my mom were not good and when I came to visit my grandparents she stepped up and said "Let me keep her." She is the woman who in 1st grade picked my up every sunday to take me to church and after we always had either Publix fried chicken or a whopper. A sunday treat. She taught me to make pecan pralines, she gave me my first driving lesson and she taught me to respect my elders. She loved me the best way she knew how but that was a challenge for her as time went on. She was developing alzheimers and no one knew.

I'll never forget the day in 4th grade where she didn't know me. She didn't know anyone. She didn't know what she was doing. Doctors called it transient amnesia with no known cause. I knew that day I was living with her not just to help me but to help her.

I remember the day when I became too much for her to take care of  but never too much for her to love.

I remember when she got mean because of her alzheimers and it became hard to separate the two.
I remember stumbling across the streaks of meanness that seemed blurred into her personality and I didn't know where these bumps began and where they ended.
I remember her helping me when I needed to buy a car.
I remember no matter how many times I had to explain who I was to her over the years as soon as she remembered and realized she would say "Anita- she loves the Lord."

memories.

now her memory has been really bad in the last few years. And I have moved away but while i know she won't remember my visit, i've still visited. This time though she is medicated for comfort. This time she wouldn't be conscious. So i don't go to say goodbye to the sleeping beauty.

Because of her I know God more. Because of her I love my bible. 
Friends who inspired you? Who brought you closer to God? 

In this season of advent thank them if you can and if you can't pray for their soul. 

Anita 

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