Valentines Day, rejoice and be glad.

This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad.

In honor of my dear friend Carol’s birthday, Feb. 14th, I rejoice, and am glad that I met her, and that I was her caregiver. Because Carol had Alzheimer’s disease I am more aware of what is important. I’m very aware how people treat one another, the love they show for each other, as shown in the Haiti earthquake. People sent money to people they didn’t even know. They boarded planes to help search for survivors. The world came together for the good of mankind. I wonder at times, does it take a catastrophe to bring people together. To give yourself when the going gets tough, is a gift placed upon you. Many of us receive gifts all the time, and some will say, ‘How can Alzheimer’s be a gift?’ It was for me, because it taught me of myself.

Most of us live from day to day, thinking what the day will bring. With Carol, love came every day, without Alzheimer’s, and with Alzheimer’s. In the beginning of the disease I wanted that cup passed from me, but then I learned to be thankful for the task that was placed on me. A caregiver. A giver of care. To be able to care for another human being was a gift. Funny, when we have babies and care for them, we are happy doing it, maybe because we watch them grow. Yet when we have a parent or partner to care for, we feel it’s a burden, too much to ask. Only when we realize that another depends on us for their life, do we say, ‘What an honor, to care for another. What a blessing’. And in so doing, we learn of our true inner selves.

Thank you Carol for letting me care for you.