In the moment with Mom...

Mom felt cold....My warm skin felt good to her. Time to get her out in the sunshine.

Mom has always loved to be outside. Gardening, golfing, walking.

Lying in her bed in the Alzheimer's section of the Life Care Center where she lives is not where she would have ever expected to be.

When Mom saw her friends and even her sister withering away from the ravages of Alzheimer's, she would say, "Don't ever let me be like that!"

So today was a day to take a "walk" in the sun. After inquiring about the location of the wheel chair Hospice provided for her so that I could take her on walks and no one being able to locate it, they found a chair we could borrow and we headed outside... a bit of a project to get Mom up, shoes on, and maneuvered into the wheel chair. Most of the time Mom is able to use a walker for the very short distance from her room to the dining room. She does needs help getting up and started walking.

Mom still enjoys the beauty of the roses....Not sure just how clearly she can see them. Her macular degeneration has robbed her of good vision. Maybe it's just the color....I had her touch the petals...soft and smooth.

I love that Mom is still happy to see me. She doesn't say much any more...and some days she says nothing during the entire visit. With Alzheimer's, communication skills decline more and more.

I am grateful that she still does appreciate that I am there for her.

Yes, I cherish being in the moment with Mom...loving the beauty of roses.

I never could have imagined my Mom being at a loss for words...

Mom was always quite the talker...a thousand questions about anything I would bring up with her...

Times have changed...two years ago my siblings and I made the decision along with Mom's physician that she would need to give up her independent living.

Mom is 93 and she is in the Alzheimers section of her life care facility where she and my dad moved into a beautiful garden home in 1990. Dad died of cancer in 1998.

I visited her today and it was one of my most teary eyed times with her. Her words are formed with more and more difficulty.

I tried calling my sister in Ohio so that she and mom could have a little conversation.....didn't happen this time....Mom barely made a tiny sound during the course of the conversation.

She still knows me, thankfully, and most everything else seems to be very foggy for her. She prefers to be lying down most of the time.

My tears dripped down on her as I was looking down on her at close range so she could see my eyes. She has extreme macular degeneration and sees very little now.

Before I left, Mom did give me several I loves you and expression appreciation for my coming to see her.

What I've had to come to terms with in these two years is that life has its seasons and even though it seems very sad for Mom to have Alzheimer's, it means that she was healthy enough to live a long life into her 90's, a decade where Alzheimer's and dementia are way too common.

Mom's life was a full one...I'd have to say she has definitely led a Million Dollar Life! Lots of travel from an early age when travel wasn't nearly as common as it is today, wonderful family, an amazing husband, lots of interests, a love of learning.