Son: Where are you going Dad?

Dad: I am going to go see your mom?

Son: Do you think she will know you today?

Dad: I don’t know, she bit me yesterday.

Son: I’ll go with you today if you like, are you ready to go?

Dad: Not yet, the peonies are in bloom and I want to take some to your mom, you know they are her favorite.

Son: I’ll help you cut them.

Dad: No thanks, I will get them myself.

As my Dad waited, I watched Granddad get the peonies for Grandma, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s and had slipped into the abyssal plain of her mind.  He took his time to cut the most perfect peonies and put them in a glass mason jar.  If ever there was a definition of what love between two people is, this was it.  Despite being taken off all medication except that for pain, Grandma lived a long time with this disease, 10 years or so.  She was abused as a child, and we all think she was scared, to die, to see her father again.  When my Granddad’s health deteriorated they were in the same room in long-term care.  Granddad died at the age of 91.  Three days later my Grandma passed.  We held a double funeral.  Yes, she had Alzheimer’s, but deep down I think she was always there and was too scared to go without Granddad.  He went first so he could come get her to take her home.  The beautiful way my Granddad cared for Grandma, not only until the day he died, but till the day she died.  To this day, if I see pink peonies, I cry.

Photo credit  Smilla4
Moved to Tears