A Smile

I am lucky to have both my parents still living - Mum is 89 and Dad turns 90 next month. As they have aged, their bodies are slowing down and their minds are not as sharp as they used to be. The things around them sort of stay the same. Either because they don't change anything, they don't want to or they just don't notice the need to do so.

From the outside I see them living as they do, and how they see it all as being fine, but the truth is, they need more and more help for some basic things to help them cope and be safe and well.

As the years and months go by I desire to spend more and more time with them as I know the time of being able to do this is coming to an end. They would come and spend Christmas or some of the summer with us and a couple of times during the year but that is not possible now so I travel to them when I can.

I was tidying some of my kitchen cupboards a little while ago and actually shed a tear that my silver tea pot would not really be used much any more.
Dad loves his tea made with tea leaves in a pot and I would get it out along with what I called his special cup and saucer.

When I visit them I always love to make Dad his cup of tea, just a little bit of what I did for him when they were here.

Mum spends most of her days now sitting in her chair in the lounge. She doesn't want to watch day time television and can't hold long conversations so spends most of the day dozing. Mum was very talented with hand crafts and could play the piano and sing. Standing next to her in church I could always hear her strong voice and although it is not so loud now she still can sing the songs.

The chair she sits in is very near her piano but the space between has been full of boxes of 'stuff' that never got sorted or thrown out. We can all be guilty of keeping things because we will read them later, file them away or use or sort them for something else but the days/weeks/months go by and it never gets done. If this then blends into years and more and more piles and boxes collect, there is soon an area of hoarding being developed.

At then end of my last visit my brother, his wife and I got to work and cleared the space to the piano, cleaning and moving the boxes to another place. We tried to make the path from Mum's chair wide enough for her to be able to get to the stool and sit and play. I found some music  titled "It Is Time" and placed it on the stand for her to see.

In the morning both Mum and Dad didn't seem to even notice what we had done so I drew their attention to it and explained I chose the music because "Now is the time Mum, for you to get back and play some music" I wasn't quite sure how she would react or what she would say but when I looked at her, she turned from looking at the piano and smiled.

Whether she gets to sit at the piano again and plays or is even able to play, and whether I get to hear her, the smile just filled me with a joy that really can't be explained. Something in her liked the whole idea and I felt that we had made that happen by the tidying we did.





When I leave after each visit I often wonder if it will be the last time, or what it will be like the next time but this time I felt a smile forming on my face as I started my long 470 kilometer drive home.

A happy heart is good medicine and a joyful mind causes healing... 
Proverbs 17:22 AMP