A Visit to a Friend

In this picture you will see my son David with Mildred Walker. "Grandma Walker" is a lovely older woman who suffers from dementia. She lives with her daughter Peg and son-in-law Dave. Two days after Christmas she became so weak that the doctor sent her to the hospital for evaluation. After several days of treatment for an infection and dehydration she was still too weak to go home so was placed in a rehab center to regain her strength. This has been very hard on her, each time her daughter visits she cries and when her daughter leaves she cries to go home. Yesterday was the first day she has shown signs of progress in regaining her strength.

Peg and Dave are wonderful Christians who are dearly loved. They truly practice their faith, they have suffered many trials throughout their lives and their loving spirit has helped them use the lessons learned to help others deal with their own trials. I know this from personal experience. When we met them, we were going through a very deep valley in our lives and they took us into their hearts and ministered to us.

Our friendship with "grandma" Walker has taught our son to be more understanding of the issues of old age. At first he found it very confusing when we would have to say our names when seeing her each time. Since she could see us he couldn't understand why we had to tell her who we were. We explained that she just wasn't able to remember us and that we should not be hurt by this. We went to visit her on Saturday and David picked one of his favorite stuffed animals, a stuffed eagle, to give to her. He also picked The Hungry Caterpillar to take to read to her. When he got there he got embarrassed, so he left it for Peg to read to her later. He chose this book since she had not been eating well and wanted to encourage her.

Please pray for Mildred Walker, Peg and Dave. Peg is spending many hours each day to make sure her mother has the care she needs. Please also pray for those in the care center who have no one to visit or look out for them.