In the early morning hours of May 10, the open-armed Savior my open-hearted mother loves* welcomed her Home from her long, fraught pilgrimage through the shadowed valley of Alzheimer's. Her spirit and soul are free from the threadbare body, and her mind is clear, clearer than it has ever been. One day (come soon, Lord Jesus) her body too will be raised and glorified to be like the risen Christ's.
In our caregiving, we received many beautiful graces, "thin places" of experiencing God's love more deeply. There was also much anguish. Some of the numinous stories need writing, and a few will be shared in coming months. Words are hard to come by just now.
We are grateful Mom is no longer suffering, grateful her desire to receive care at home to the very end was granted, grateful for the helpers the Lord sent, especially nurse Emmily, and grateful for protection from all kinds of infections so that she stayed with us all the way until Alzheimer's itself took her. Most of all, we are grateful that we who love both Mom and Jesus will see them someday. And I am grateful that, with Mom with Jesus, and Jesus living in me, and me "in Christ" (as Paul often said), I can never be so very far removed from her. The communion of the saints has never meant more.
If you also know and love the Lord, I can't wait for you to meet her too.
If you don't yet, she would want you to know that Jesus gave His life on the cross for sinners like us so that all who receive Him by trusting Him would be cleansed and forgiven of sin and clothed in His righteousness. He gives to all who trust Him the right to be called children of God, and He then comes to take up residence in our hearts. He transforms us from the inside out until our bodies die or He returns and calls us Home.
We don't have to get our acts together to come to Him. We don't have to earn His approval. He offers love, grace, and welcome to sinners and enemies deserving of wrath, if only we come to Him and ask for His rescue.
"The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."
Romans 3:22-24 CSB
*"Loves" because she still lives in spirit and loves the Lord better than ever now.
Other more coherent pieces about my dear mom:
