My Mother-in-law....You gotta love her!

My mother-in-law, Esther. In above picture she is standing by my little Madge at Co-lin after the Mass Choir singing. On the left is a friend of Madge. Ms. Esther, maw-in-law as I call her or Mamie as lovingly called by my girls....is a character...a good one! She has always been very independent, VERY intelligent and always fun to be around. When I came into the Family, it took she and I a couple years before we really spent time together, to know each other, and when we did we became almost inseparable. Anytime the girls and I wanted or needed to go somewhere, Esther jumped in the car with us. The last few years the girls and I would get our baths, get our pj's, slippers and robes on....grab a movie and popcorn and load up heading to "mamies" to spend the night (we usually surprised her)....praying nothing happened to my car with me in my pj's and robe! The Lord saw fit to get us there without the whole county knowing we rode around in our night clothes : )

3 or 4 days a week we spent hours at mamie's playing board games . We have shared many a laughs with her....A lot of them coming from us being so delirious after playing many rounds of games.

The last 2 years I had noticed a change in maw-in-law's behavior & memory. After a year 1/2 she also began to be concerned about her memory. She and I began to check into it. The Dr.'s thought she may be having the first signs of Alzheimers. By April 3 of this year, she had an accident involving her truck and her in the yard. She was in CCU for a little bit then moved to swing bed here in town until I could ready a room for her here. Madge, without question, gave her bedroom over to Mamie and slept on the floor in our room. Maw-in-law went through weeks of physical therapy then was dismissed from there. Physically she is fine, but her mind is getting worse, quicker than we had hoped. She still is maw-in-law, until she has those bad days...then I just have to be patient and see it through. After 3 mths. with us I lined up sitters to stay with her at her own home so she could be comfortable.....she isn't happy with having sitters and I'm having trouble getting her to let them take her places because she wants me to do that. Once in a while I will take her somewhere with me but I'm trying not to do it very often because I want her to rely on the women I have set up to stay with her. One day she wanted to go somewhere so I went to her home, told the sitter to crank the car, told her she was driving...me in the back and maw-in-law in the front. At first maw-in-law was upset with me but I told her we were going to check out the sitters driving together (she had already ridden with her but had forgotten)....she relaxed and began to be ok. THANK YOU LORD!

As I look at what transpired and how things have worked.....God was in it from way back...as He ALWAYS is! Way back 14 yrs. ago when maw-in-law and I did and went all the time together...that was God bonding us with a trusting relationship, friendship, to prepare the both of us for what

has happened in her life...which has also changed mine. God allowed us to become more of a mother/daughter and this is getting us both through this process. Had we not had all those years together to really get to know one another, having her live here during those healing months would have been a real strain, but I had always told her I would ALWAYS be there for her no matter what. I THANK God for all the qualities He has so graciously given me to be strong enough to deal with the things that come along with trying to see that she gets the best treatment.

Most importantly I THANK HIM for allowing she and I to have those years together....even tho these next ones will be more difficult, I pray He will continue to remind me of who is really inside of this sometimes stranger....a very loving, kind, gentle, intelligent and God fearing woman, my maw-in-law...someone who permanently is branded in my heart. Remember to spend time with those you grow to love because you never know just what adventure you may be on tomorrow.... God is on EVERY one with you!!

It IS the little things that mean the most.....

Until next time, may God bless your Journey!