Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real--6/30/11

{Pretty Happy Real}

My mother and my grandmother visited us for a few days this week. My grandmother is in the early stages of Alzheimer's. She can't remember my kids' names, or how many there are, or whose house she is in. But as my husband and I told the kids, she remembers that she loves us.


Because she didn't remember that she had already said it, my daughters and sons heard over and over what beautiful girls and fine boys they were. We heard her delight repeatedly in the innocence of my doll of a baby girl. They saw that she doesn't like being idle, asking over and over if there was anything she could do to help, forgetting that she had just washed a sink full of dishes or folded a big basket of clothes.

And she was so good-natured, even knowing something of what is happening to her. Please pray for her; but I hope I can age as well.

{Funny}

While they were here, my mom (who is a watermelon connoisseuse) bought the first yellow-flesh watermelon my kids had ever seen.

Four-year-old Jude's reaction was, first, a shocked silence and then, "This is wrong. Just wrong." (He liked it after he finally tried it.)