Poor mistreated Dad!

Yesterday was my birthday! One of the most important things I wanted to do was to spend time with Mom and Dad! After all, they're the reason I'm here!!! I believe it is very important to be grateful!!! Ollie and I went to Mom and Dad's house to pick them up and go out to lunch. My sister Jean surprised me and joined us! After lunch we all went back to the house and while the men napped, we girls drug out the old pictures from our childhood and did some reminiscing! We laughed at some, especially the hairdo's, and were sentimental over others. What I love about doing that is the stories that we share. Inevitably I hear a story that I hadn't heard before. We are so blessed to have those pictures to spur our memories. It makes me so sad for the people who have suffered loss of those things through floods, hurricanes and fires. I know we are not meant to put so much value on material things, but it's hard not to. The great part is that most of those memories are kept in our hearts!

Another important thing I like to is to call my Aunt Mary and wish her a happy birthday the day before mine! I have always felt a special connection to her because of our close birthdays! She sounded great and we had a wonderful phone-visit!

As I mentioned in a previous post, most of the family was together at Glenda's for Father's Day. What I didn't know was that Dad used his cane, and some assistance from Mom and Danny, and climbed the stairs so he could see the 2nd story of Glenda's new home! Now that's pretty impressive! Dad is still making progress, maybe not on a daily basis, but it is happening!!!

Mom told us a cute story yesterday! She said one day recently she had fussed at Dad about something. A bit later she was doing something back in their bedroom and, using his cane, he came walking in singing the words to this song..."I've been cheated, been mistreated, when will I be loved?!" She said they shared a great big laugh over that! She was amazed because she could actually tell what he was singing!!! When Dad sings, like when he sang "Happy Birthday" to me, you can tell what he's singing! Way back when Dad was in Reliant, the speech therapist told us that you use a different part of your brain to sing than to talk. After Mom told us about him singing to her, I said it would be great if he could just sing to us to communicate!! Sadly, it's not that easy! Dad wanted so badly to tell us something at lunch yesterday, but we just couldn't figure out what it was. I cannot imagine how frustrating that must be for him. It makes me admire his fortitude that much more! Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Patience and fortitude conquer all things." My Dad has conquered so much more than any of us thought possible. The greatest of those was not to let the stroke conquer him!. All through the grace of God!

Glenda hosted me, Ollie, Whitney, Austin, Lisa, Danny and friends, Dennis, Linda and Stuart to her house last night for a wonderful birthday dinner! The greatest gifts I received yesterday were the sparkling-eyed smile, hug and laughing "Ah" that I got from my Dad when I walked in the door, the warm, loving, healing hug I got from my Momma, and the love that I received from Ollie, my kids, grandkids and all my family and friends! "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy and peace." Galatians 5:22 ~ I am so truly blessed with all of those things and so much more! Amen!