This evening Marnie, the lead caregiver for the Reminiscence Neighborhood, was sitting with Mom and trying to get her to take her 5 pm meds and to drink a little milk.
"Why are you doing this?" Mom suddenly asked her. "I'm ready."
"Yes, you are ready, aren't you?" Marnie replied. She stopped pressuring her to take the meds.
A few minutes later Marnie slipped out of her room to cry.
She reported the scene to me later--with tears.
Marnie's own mother died last November of cancer at age 71 in the Philippines. Marnie had visited for a month in the summer, but she could not nurse her during her final months without quitting her job here in the US. Instead she earned money to send to her mother and to build a wonderful memorial plaza with benches and flowers to house her mother's ashes (and later those of other members of the family).
Marnie nurses Mom like her own mother; she came in last Sunday on her day off to care for Mom and try to feed her.
What a gift to us! We can't repay kindness like this; we can only accept it with gratitude.
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