This last Saturday my husband, our son, and I went to visit my mother-in-law. She's 89 years old and suffers from dementia. She lives in the dementia care center at a senior care facility about two and a half hours from us.
My husband and I have five adult children. We had been empty nesters for about a year while our two youngest sons served two-year full-time missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A couple of months ago, our son (pictured here with his guitar) completed his two-year mission. I shared pictures of the happy homecoming on this blog. If you'd like to see that post, click HERE. Our youngest son is still serving his mission in Arizona. The rest of our kids live out-of-state right now.
My mother-in-law has been suffering from dementia for several years. It's so difficult to see her as she is now. She can't really speak anymore. And we don't really know if she even recognizes us. Before dementia took hold, my mother-in-law was a very well-read, sharp-minded and knowledgeable woman. She was a gospel scholar, having taught seminary for a total of 30 years at church. Seminary is a gospel class taught to high school kids. The course of study centers on the scriptures. You can read more about seminary by clicking HERE. She also taught the adult Sunday School class, called Gospel Doctrine, at church for many years as well.
My mother-in-law was also very politically active. She even ran for congress twice.
For our visit with my mother-in-law, our son decided to bring his guitar to play for her. We took her for a little walk in her wheel chair (which we usually do when we visit her), and ended up at this pretty bench on the care facility property. Our son played a couple of hymns for his grandma and then sang and played for her too. It was just so sweet! My mother-in-law didn't really have any reaction. But, I'm hoping that her spirit was touched anyway. Music is a powerful way to connect with people. And hopefully, she felt something wonderful as our son sang and played for her.
While our son was singing, a sweet elderly lady, who we found out is a new resident at the care facility, stopped walking and came over to listen to our son. She inched her way forward towards us. It was so cute! When our son finished singing, she asked if she could pull up a chair to listen. She also asked if he was performing later at the facility. How sweet! It was about time for us to take my mother-in-law back so she could have lunch, but there was time for one more song. So our son sang and played I Am a Child of God. The sweet lady seemed to really enjoy the song and asked our son for a hug as we left.
I'm so glad our son decided to bring his guitar so he could play and sing for his grandma. He really is a kind and thoughtful person.
Thanks for stopping by!
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