Life moves in stages. One step progresses. Then it is time for it to be over. Another stage begins. And so on. It is all part of God's plan for our lives. God is good and His heart can be trusted. He is there in every stage, working everything for good for those who are His (Romans 8:28).
Mother is in the hospital with what seems to be the beginning of another stage in her life. Two weeks ago she was getting around on her own with her walker, talking and joking, and taking care of her daily needs. Now she sounds drunk when she talks, has trouble walking, and has to have help for daily functions. A week in bed after a fall seems to have lowered her resistence to symptoms of dementia. Her activity level had been her way of pushing against what was going on in her life. Once she stopped moving around, the symptoms took over like kudzu on a deserted road.
I sit beside her, in the hospital recliner, keeping everything light and trying to make this stage of the journey as enjoyable as it can be. We watch a tv news show, then switch to the channel that has videos of picturesque scenery accompanied by soft, elevator music. She remarks that it looks like there's an old car in the middle of that waterfall. I say that rocks can look like most anything, when I know that the real problem is that she can't really see the detail on the screen. We chat about the flowers in another scene. She wonders where this video was filmed. I remark that I'd like to have the job of going around the world and filming beautiful scenery.
The chatter goes on and on, theme music of a sort for this final stage of a life that started almost 88 years ago. I want to be there as much as possible, cheering her up. It is, after all, part of life.
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