The Mirror

As most of you know every weekend (usually Saturday) I take Kaylin and Eli to visit my parents. We normally spend the day with them and come home after dinner. Yesterday was no exception, off we go to mema's and pop's. I knew within five minutes that today was different. For those that don't know, my dad has Dementia / Alzheimer's. He was diagnosed almost one year ago. He is doing so much better than any of the doctors thought possible. Every now and then we go through a small bump and this one of those roads. They have lived in their home for twenty seven years and in the living room they have a big mirror on the end wall. Since my dad's fall and stay in the hospital and nursing home he pretty much stays in the living room. The den is down stairs so they don't use it very much now. His chair sits at the other end of the room where there are stairs going to the bathroom and bedrooms. I didn't know until getting there that he had been giving my mom a hard time for several weeks. He thought he was seeing people go up stairs to another room that she was not letting him go to (he was actually seeing the upstairs in the mirror , not understanding it's the same set of stairs he sees when he turns around). It's really hard to understand how this horrible disease works! Other than this problem you would never know anything was wrong with him. My mom told him we were going to take the mirror down and put it away. He did let us - I'm not sure what he was thinking - he didn't say much as we did it. My poor sweet mama was so upset that we were having to move it. She was angry (my momma never gets angry about anything) that she was having to move it, that she couldn't make him understand that it was just a mirror, and I think just was at her limit for that day. It has only been three years since she lost her mom to this same disease. She took care of her up to the day Jesus came for her. I know it's hard for her as well - please, please keep them in your prayers.