I think Christmas, of all holidays, is a holiday that gives us the gift of memories, and mostly good ones, and the memories that keep living with us as long as we live. So this memory I’m going to share with you is from 10 years ago, Christmas 1999, which was the last Christmas that my mom– my mom enjoyed here on Earth. And it was– by then, she had been struggling with Alzheimer’s for a number of years. And she had been moved into a– an apartment in an Alzheimer’s unit not far from my brother’s house.
And what we usually did was we would bring Mom over to my brother’s house for Christmas day. And we’d open presents, and then we’d have a big Christmas feast. And she’d usually tire out pretty soon. And then we’d take her back to her apartment in a place that was called Clausen Manor.
By 1999, 10 years ago, it had become clear that even that little trip over to my brother’s house was arduous for her. She got very tired and somewhat confused. So on this particular Christmas, we decided to take Christmas to my mom.
And we all piled in our cars. Me; my wife Julie; my cousin Carole; Rachel, my niece; Clare, my niece; and my sister Mary Lou; and my sister-in-law Toni; and my brother Joe, we all went over to Clausen Manor. And we had gifts of all sorts of things. And I know Clare and Rachel brought chocolates for my mom because she was kind of a chocolate addict– a secret chocolate addict.
Julie and I brought a plant that we knew that Mom would probably water to death before the new year because she watered constantly. She couldn’t remembered– she could never remember if she had watered a plant. So they didn’t usually last very long. And– but she loved getting a plant. So that’s why we always brought her plants.
My cousin Carole had a big pop-up book that she brought, which was “The 12 Days of Christmas.” And it was this gift that my mom showed a great deal of interest in. So while we were sitting around, talking to Mom and talking to each other, my mother suddenly– and we really hadn’t known that my mother could read for a number of years. And she hadn’t even been very verbal in recent months.
But she picked up this pop-up Christmas book of “The 12 Days of Christmas.” And she began, all of a sudden, to attempt to read it. And she started haltingly. On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me. And then she went on to the second day of Christmas, and the third day of Christmas.
Now, things didn’t exactly come out right. You know, maids turn into moms. And hens turned into houses and so forth. And so turtle doves became turtle dolls. But we let her go on, until she got to about the 10th day of Christmas, and she began to falter because it was clear she was getting tired.
And she stumbled a little bit. And then I stepped in and tried to prompt her a little bit and get her through to the 12th day of Christmas. And suddenly, she just sort of reared up in her wheelchair, ramrod straight. And her eyes flashing, and her chin jutted out. And she said, are you going to let me do this by myself?
And for a minute there, we saw the old mom, the mom we knew, the feisty, independent woman that we had grown up loving and admiring, and sometimes being a little intimidated by. And it was an amazing thing to see. On the way over to the– to her apartment, I had said to Julie, does Mom even know it’s Christmas? And I think at that moment, when my mom spoke, we all knew it was Christmas.
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