"Everything just seems so rote".
Those were my words to a friend this morning.
Each day I visit Westminister Woods where my 99-year-old mother has been a resident for almost three years. By now she is in a private room. She sleeps most of the time. Someone from Hospice checks on her each day and the nurses and CNAs there are very good to ensure that she is comfortable.
She is neither hungry nor thirsty as well as we can understand. She will sometime sip a small bit of water.
Our family believes that's one of the reasons she has such nice skin (even at 99).
There's a little packet of moistener for her lips that is by her bed. I hope she can taste the lemon when I press it across her lips.
This takes about an hour of my day and that includes driving there, and checking in - yes I'm vaccinated; no I haven't been in contact with anyone who tested positive and my temp is no more than 98.6 - inquiring at the nurses' station - any change? what meds have been given???, the face-washing and skin softener routine and then just sitting quietly - by the bed for a few minutes before driving away.
It's so ROTE
And yet - sometimes just when I least expect it - something happens that makes me smile.
I was in church this morning and the offertory was Just as I am. If you have ever been to a Billy Graham Crusade you might recognize that song as an invitation hymn (the song that is sung when a person is invited to come forward and pray the prayer of salvation)
That's one of my mother's favorite hymns.
As a teenager when she was in a church service and that song was sung mother left her seat to make a profession of faith in Christ. Some time ago she told me that when she hears it she wants to "get saved" all over again. If you are unsure what that means -- it's another way of saying one has accepted Christ
Most of our friends know and appreciate what I am saying when I say "ours is a family of faith". We fully believe that our mother is going to be "absent from the body, but present with the Lord" (II Corinthians 5:8) and our loved ones who are already there. We also so appreciate the life that Earl and Iva Huffingham gave us - through their lives - in which they loved God first, each other, and then us - and the rest of their world.
As I listened to that old hymn this morning, I smiled. I have so many wonderful memories. I think God blessed me through that song this morning and I am most grateful that even though life seems to be a "going through the motions experience" there are small things that help me (and my family) get through what we are going through.
May your life have enough sunshine
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