It was an honest mistake; anyone could have done it. I don't know why My Stanley didn't see the humor in it, because after all, it didn't taste that bad; it was just a little "off". Well, it might have tasted completely awful, but it was the thought that counts, right? I made him an apple pie, complete with lattice top. I have perfected a Splenda version of an old favorite recipe that is more diabetic-friendly for an occasional not-so-much-guilt treat. (Let me backtrack just a little. Several months ago, I reorganized my spices in a shoe holder on the back on the pantry door and labeled everything, alphabetically of course. I thought it would be such an improvement over the jumbled up mess in their former home in a kitchen drawer. This tidbit of info is important to this confession.) So ...... in reaching for the cinnamon, I grabbed the almost identical bottle of cumin. And I was very liberal with it because we both like cinnamon so much. Now you know the rest of the story.
But wait, there's more. (You're gonna love this.) In that same week, we had our marriage re-commitment situation. It was a very small group of us at the church. No pre-planning; nothing fancy; just lots of love and family and close friends who gathered almost at the spur of the moment. So of course Kelly (our pastor) read from the passage in Genesis about Adam and Eve in the garden when God had told them not to eat from that one tree or they would surely die. It was hard to focus on anything else he said after that. He didn't mention the pie; he took his comments to a totally different place. And yes, he knew about the pie. I think most of the county knew about the pie.
Looking back, the first indication that something wasn't quite right with my momma was the day she proudly served us a squash pie. She could have sworn it was apple pie. It looked as beautiful as all her other pies always did, but there was just something a little "off". It didn't really taste that bad at all, but it was just a little "off". And we all noticed it, even my momma. She just wouldn't let it go until she got to the bottom of it. She soon discovered that instead of choosing apples from the freezer, she had used a bag of frozen squash. An honest mistake that anyone could make, but her honest mistakes started happening more and more often. The next time we visited she had fried up a skillet of sliced cookie dough to go with the biscuits and gravy. The cookie dough was in a package similarly shaped to sausage. Another honest mistake that anyone could make.
So of course when I made my honest mistake with my own version of my momma's squash pie, you can be sure that warning bells went off, and as much as I tried to ignore them, their ringing didn't silence. Knowing my possible future is something I think about lots of days, but not in a worried kind of way. Having had a first degree relative with Alzheimer's disease puts me at a 20% greater risk of having it myself. But I'm totally ok with that, because I've put that concern in the Lord's hands and I know He'll do what's best for me and my family. And I also look at it like this: I've already had several cancer scares, so chances are, cancer may resurface at some point. If that happens I won't have to worry about what might or might not happen with Alzheimer's. And if I do get Alzheimer's, I won't be so concerned with a pesky cancer re-occurrence. It's all good!
I recently read about the Nun Study where extensive Alzheimer's research was done on groups of nuns in selected sites across the country. One interesting fact just jumped out at me:
"The nuns in this study who were diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and were socially engaged and (who) had a positive outlook/attitude had a remarkable slowing of the disease process. Sister Mary, the gold standard for the Nun Study, was a remarkable woman who had high cognitive test scores before her death at 101 years of age. What is more remarkable is that she maintained this high status despite having abundant neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques, the classic lesions of Alzheimer's disease. Findings from Sister Mary and all 678 participants in the Nun Study may provide unique clues about the etiology of aging and Alzheimer's disease, exemplify what is possible in old age, and show how the clinical expression of some diseases may be averted."
Aging and Alzheimer's Disease: Lessons From the Nun Study1
David A. Snowdon, PhD Author NotesThe Gerontologist,
Volume 37, Issue 2, April 1997, Pages 150–156,
https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/37.2.150Published: 01 April 1997
Yes indeed, Alzheimer's is a horrible disease that robs us of those we love long before we have to say our final goodbyes. But this blog IS NOT about Alzheimer's; it's about how God can take something so awful and make something totally beautiful - and I hope you see that above all else. The last five "bad" years of my momma's life are years that I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. Even though she no longer knew me, and even though she had lost her ability to communicate with words, she was just so completely happy; maybe happier than she had been in her healthier days. And even though she could no longer speak anything but gibberish, she could still sing every word of every old hymn she had ever known. And sing it LOUD. I could always tell by the tone of her non-words when she was praying; what a blessing to have a praying momma who prayed so often I could recognize the tone of her praying voice!! And the very night she left this shell of her former self to get her brand new glorified body, we both sang her into Heaven with "Victory In Jesus". Now do you see why I don't dread it so much? If I'm even half as happy as my precious momma, then I'll have it made!
There's really not much more that I can add to this to explain what a mighty God we serve. He is concerned with the most minute details of every fiber of our being. When He inspired Nehemiah to pen these famous words, He was looking down through time even then knowing that thousands of years later the Nun Study would be published. The Nun Study - how ironic - yet not.
For the joy of the Lord is your strength.
Nehemiah 8:10
