Kate received Mother’s Day cards from our daughter and her twin boys on Saturday. I put them on the island in the kitchen with the intention of giving them to her the next morning. When we came home from dinner, she saw them and asked what they were. I told her, and she wanted them. I gave the cards to her and helped her read them. Then she took them back to the bedroom where she looked at them again and put them on her bedside table.
That night she picked them up and sat down with them while I took a shower. She was still looking at them when I got out. She must have looked at them a full 30 minutes. She had a beautiful smile on her face.
After she was dressed and ready for lunch with the sitter yesterday, she picked up the cards and took them to the family room where she sat down and looked at them once again. Knowing that she has trouble reading, I asked if she would like me to read them for her. She did. As I read each one tears filled her eyes, she wanted me to read them again. Then she took the cards in her arms and held them tightly against her chest and said, “I’m going to keep these forever.” She paused and said, “And I’m going to tell my children not to ever throw them away.”
I’ve never seen her react so emotionally to cards. In fact, I have been surprised at how little interest she has had in them in the past. I think the explanation lies in the fact that she is at a new stage of the disease. It seems like she is moved even more now by all those things she experiences intuitively. That is true for music, for the beauty of nature, her interest in children, and to expressions of love and concern for her.
I can think of two other examples from yesterday. One involves a ceramic cat that sits on the floor one side of the fireplace. She passes it every time we leave the house. Yesterday, as usual, she stopped to look at the cat and commented on his eyes. She doesn’t confuse him with a real cat, but she loves him almost as much.
The other involved one of the paper doilies that she brings home from one of the restaurants we visit. She loves them. That was obvious when she held one in her hand and wanted to take it with us to dinner last night. It’s like her emotions are in overdrive. She is becoming more childlike. Her rational abilities are almost gone. Her intuitive ones sustain her. For me, each of these things brings a moment of sadness, but I am grateful and touched to see her enjoy such simple pleasures.
