Frannie's eSpace

Butterfly Festival at Dunwoody Nature Center

Janice and I enjoyed seeing the butterflies. We were supposed to feed them, but they weren't too hungry by the time we got there.

Psalm 84

I went to a good friend's mother's funeral today. There was a lot of Scripture and a lot of pretty hymns. My favorite Scripture was Psalm 84. I think I'll recommend that we read it at Mama's funeral when the time comes. The Psalm emphasizes the joy of dwelling in the presence of the Lord. That is my mother! In fact, even now, although she is rather out of it with Alzheimer's, my mother still seems so peaceful. (She is probably dwelling in the presence of God!)

The Psalm also emphasizes the blessing of those who dwell in the house of God. Oh how my mother loved St. Peter's Episcopal Church! She was there every time the doors were open! 

"Blessed are those whose strength is in you." My mother certainly relied on God; she had to with 6 children! And, my goodness, did she ever turn her Valleys of Baca into a place of springs! My mother had the gift of turning difficult times into blessful times.

Psalm 84 just keeps getting better! Probably it's most famous line is "Better is one day in your courts than a 1000 elsewhere."

"No good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless." My mother has led a blameless life! God will withhold nothing from her at the gates of Heaven!

Ride at your own risk!

Gone fishin...

Indiana Jones to the rescue!

Looking good!

Mama had a great day! She got her hair done, which really perked her up, and Charles fed her lunch afterwards. He said she was holding her own fork and even uttered a phrase or two. I'm so happy!

My mother's glasses

Sunday, as I was opening the glove compartment, it fell off its hinges and dropped to the floorboard! Amongst the driving manual and some expired insurance cards lay my mother's old pair of glasses. Who knows why I put them there!

They are the prettiest little pair of glasses... a rosy color that looked really good on Mama. Holding them brings back so many memories! The major memory is that Mama always wore glasses. She said she was blind as a bat, almost as if it were a feat that only few in life could achieve. I remember when Mama upgraded to trifocals! She's one of the few people I've ever known to wear trifocals. When we played solitaire, Mama would often say "Let's stop, children, and let me readjust my glasses!" When I got glasses in fifth grade, it felt special to be joining a club that Mama already belonged to.

When Mama had cataract surgery, she exclaimed how wonderful it was to see again! She still wore glasses to read, but at least they weren't trifocals! What's strange is that we (her children) thought she looked better with glasses on! I guess we were so used to them.

There's no need for Mama to wear glasses now; they'd just get in her way, and she can see well enough to get by. But, I'll probably keep these rose-colored glasses forever!

My mother's hands

It doesn't take much for me to get teary eyed these days regarding my mother, who has slipped a notch or two on the Alzheimer's scale this past month. Sitting with Mama yesterday, I took her hands and gave her a love squeeze hoping she would return the gesture. She didn't, but I have to believe that she was squeezing my hands in her heart. What's ironic is while tears are streaming down my face as I'm holding her hand, my mother, who used to be so compassionate just stares as me. I wonder if she's thinking anything. Does she remember all the things she used to do for us with those hands?

Here are some concrete memories of Mama's hands:

• Peanut butter smile - Whenever Mama opened up a new jar of peanut butter, she would draw a smile with the knife on the smooth surface of the peanut butter before digging in and making us our beloved pb & j sandwiches.
• This little Piggy Went to Market - We used to ask Mama to say this nursery rhyme to us with her hands holding ours and going through the motions.
• Cutting my fingernails with her fingernail scissors - I loved to ask Mama to cut my fingernails. She was so careful.
• Washing our hair in the kitchen sink - Mama laid us on the kitchen counter supporting our heads in the sink and gently washing our hair.
• Gently squeezing our cheeks and giving us a kiss
• Checking to see if we had a fever
• Blowing us a kiss when saying goodbye
• Coming our hair and getting the tangles out, very careful not to hurt us

And then there are the countless other activities that I associate with Mama's hands:

• Sewing our clothes
• Washing dishes
• Hanging out clothes to dry
• Folding our clothes
• Ironing our clothes
• Driving us wherever we needed to go
• "Pasting up pages" at The Daily Herald so that our family had enough money to have a few extras in life
  
• Helping us type our research papers
• Picking vegetables from the garden
• Cooking breakfast every morning (biscuits on Sunday!)
• Filling out college financial aid forms

I wonder if Mama ever had any fun?

What's funny is that my hands are shaped like my mother's hands, and sometimes when I look at them I see Mama, and the tears start flooding and there's nothing I can do about it. This has happened at work before! One small difference, however: my hands don't have half the stories to tell that Mama's hands have.

Grinding Teeth

My mother has begun grinding her teeth. Loudly too! Up until now, apart from not walking, rarely feeding herself, and not saying much, Mama has seemed fairly normal. Plus, she is so content and peaceful looking... some days it would be nice to be like her: with not a worry in the world. (There are probably worse things than losing your mind!)

But the teeth grinding has just about got me. It's akin to fingernails on chalk. My poor mother: you can tell she has no control over it and probably doesn't even know she's grinding her teeth. There's nothing to do about it, and it's probably a foreshadow of more decline.

Oh, God, thank you for my sweet mother and all the happy times we had together! 

A lovely wedding

My second cousin got married this weekend, and the wedding was absolutely beautiful! You could feel Christ's presence immensely throughout the service. It reminded me a lot of my nephew's wedding last summer. All the preludes and processionals were beautiful hymns: "Praise Ye The Lord", "All Creatures of our God and King", "Holy, Holy, Holy" (my all-time favorite hymn!), "The Church's One Foundation", "A Mighty Fortress." The organ, brass and strings combination was majestic. One of the singers sang "He's Always Been Faithful" which was a medley containing "Great is Thy Faithfulness" (another of my faves!). Although I love classical, sacred music at weddings too, the hymns are just so meaningful.

The sermon was inspiring too: the minister stressed that marriage is 1 + 1 = 1. And, on top of that, we should be one in Christ. He also reminded us that marriage is ordained by God to glorify Him. All this is common knowledge, but still good stuff.

The reading was the same scripture that we chose for our wedding: Colossians 3:12-17. The best verse from that passage is verse 14: "Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you."

With a ceremony that powerful, my cousin and his new wife are definitely starting out their new life together on a firm foundation!