I want to make a meaningful comment on this, but it’s such an emotional topic that I’m having trouble nailing down my thoughts in reaction.
Perhaps it’s because I’m watching my parents age and don’t have much context to help me deal with it. I saw my grandmother go through the aging process and have some similar mood swings and personality changes, and there is definitely an element of fear and uncertainty about having to go through that again with my own parents.
I agree that faith in God is a powerful (and essential) foundation to have when dealing with these seasons of life. And I would imagine that writing also had a significant impact for you.
It is a very emotional topic, and one that I experienced close up through my mother’s struggles with dementia over many years. One of the messages I wanted to get across to others who might read this is that despite the tumult and havoc dementia wreaks on a person, it can be overcome, in Mom’s case by her very deep faith in God.
A quick story of something I consider miraculous. A couple of weeks before Mom died and she was in the hospital bed in her room, I recall that I sat by her side and read her two favorite Bible verses. By this point, I thought she had virtually no short-term memory left. When I finished reading the two short verses, I decided to ask her what it was that I had just read to her. She immediately recited to two verses verbatim.
I still marvel at this, and it’s one of the powerful occurrences toward the end of her life that bolster my own often feeble faith. How on earth could she have done that were it not the spirit of God speaking through her?
A very powerful example of the importance of fixing our eyes on God and renewing our minds through His Word on a regular basis. Those are the mental and spiritual connections that matter most throughout all of life, right up to the end of what we experience this side of heaven.
I want to make a meaningful comment on this, but it’s such an emotional topic that I’m having trouble nailing down my thoughts in reaction.
Perhaps it’s because I’m watching my parents age and don’t have much context to help me deal with it. I saw my grandmother go through the aging process and have some similar mood swings and personality changes, and there is definitely an element of fear and uncertainty about having to go through that again with my own parents.
I agree that faith in God is a powerful (and essential) foundation to have when dealing with these seasons of life. And I would imagine that writing also had a significant impact for you.
It is a very emotional topic, and one that I experienced close up through my mother’s struggles with dementia over many years. One of the messages I wanted to get across to others who might read this is that despite the tumult and havoc dementia wreaks on a person, it can be overcome, in Mom’s case by her very deep faith in God.
A quick story of something I consider miraculous. A couple of weeks before Mom died and she was in the hospital bed in her room, I recall that I sat by her side and read her two favorite Bible verses. By this point, I thought she had virtually no short-term memory left. When I finished reading the two short verses, I decided to ask her what it was that I had just read to her. She immediately recited to two verses verbatim.
I still marvel at this, and it’s one of the powerful occurrences toward the end of her life that bolster my own often feeble faith. How on earth could she have done that were it not the spirit of God speaking through her?
A very powerful example of the importance of fixing our eyes on God and renewing our minds through His Word on a regular basis. Those are the mental and spiritual connections that matter most throughout all of life, right up to the end of what we experience this side of heaven.