I work now in the senior care industry. We help quite a few people who are caring for a spouse with dementia and/or alzheimer's. When one man was asked why he has continued for the past five years his daily visits to his wife who no longer remembers him, he simply said, "Because I remember her."
I have a feeling that Heaven would be Hell for him if she isn't there with him, since I know it would be Hell for me without Mama.
Cries and Dolls
4 weeks ago
9 comments:
That's lovely. It choked me up a little bit.
I remember you. Heaven truly would be Hell if we were not together. <3
(Hi, Paul!)
That is so sad but sweet. How wonderful to see such devotion.
That is a great story. Your blog is so much more uplifting than mine is.
Perhaps, Scott, but your picture kicks butt. I couldn't top it even if I had hair.
Paul, it still hits me every time I read it.
Patty, it is wonderful. It's one of the best things about this job.
Isn't that a story about Thomas S. Monson visiting the widows of the ward he was bishop over?
No, Derek. It was shared with me by a caregiver who is not a member of the Mormon Church and has never heard of Thomas S. Monson.
I have read the same story said about Thomas S. Monson. It is said that Monson never stopped visiting the widows of his ward, even as they all began to pass and their numbers dwindled, he continued to visit each lady, even when they didn't remember him or couldn't communicate. President Monson is praised for his leadership in Church welfare, his ward having the greatest welfare burden in the state, etc. So the biographical sketch I was reading said an Elder asked him why he kept it up all these years when sometimes he's not even remembered, and his reply was, "Because I remember them."
It's easy to pick up and repeat feel-good notions, or to assign feel-good notions to people in leadership -- I was just read this a few days ago about Monson, so that's the only reason I bring it up. I had first heard the idea then, so am surprised to find it repeated so soon and about different people.
Derek, that's one of the craziest things about life - hearing something in one setting and then hearing something nearly identical in a completely different one. I've had that happen to me more than once, and it still surprises me when it does.
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