Dave and I had a serious conversation this afternoon. His friend, who lives across the country, has quit communicating with Dave. The friend's wife answers Dave's e-mails and does the talking when Dave calls. It's sad but it happens more and more to folks our age. Whatever the health problem is, we want to hide it. Especially if it has to do with dementia.
Dave and I renewed our commitment to be open and honest as we age. Especially with each other. And, as I've shared with you before, my personal hero in modeling how to do this is The Reverend Jim McWhinnie.
Here is one of Jim's latest Facebook journal entries:
MY ALZHEIMER'S JOURNAL ... November 2, 2014
We made a stop at Wal-Mart and once again my wife managed to get herself lost. At least, that is how we phrase my wanderings nowadays. It is a sequence of momentary lapses ... the first, I forget that I can get lost in complicated places with too many options of left or right or straight ahead. The second ... I forget to keep my wife in sight. The third ... I forget to locate my home base. The fourth, fifth, and sixth ... I forget the turns that I had just made ... for I have found that my only hope of recovering my orientation is to retrace my steps. But again ... it was my wife who got lost. But, in the end, I found her ... though she claims she found me.
I have so often used the preacher's cliche ... "I went searching for God until God found me." Poetically true, I suppose, but I do believe God keeps a pretty good eye on us ... and though we may panic because we can't see God ... God always knows where we are.
I have always found comfort in knowing that God keeps his eye on the sparrow ... even sparrows who wander about Wal-mart ...and as I now stroll into the Long Good-bye ...this sparrow is finding that comforting awareness to be more and more something I cling to with all my heart and hope. So I now often pray ... "Lord, I sometimes wander off ... so before I wander too far away ... call my name and call it loud!"
jim mcwhinnie
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