A Piece of Cake

Dean is at our brain injury support group by himself tonight. I didn't feel anyone would want exposure to my cold, so I dropped him off--with name tags and refreshments (it was our month). I'm sure he'll do alright there by himself. We've known these people for ten years. Same meeting place, same time, same night of the month. We give reminder calls just before the meeting night though. I called my list just today, rather late. No excuse, I was even reminded to do the reminding. Oh, dear. Is my memory slipping too?

I remember one elderly couple who used to come to our meetings years ago. He had a head injury and the wife was his caregiver. Over the course of a few years, however, it became obvious to some in our group that she was having memory problems too. What a sad affair! Neither of them being able to remember appointments, etc. I was hoping they had family who was ready to step in and take over her caregiving duties when it got bad enough. I believe they finally did.

Who knows what the future holds for any of us? I'm just barely in my sixties, and these things do weigh on my mind. Probably because I have dealt with Dean's dementia and memory loss for so long already. My family and I are pretty much professionals by now. So, it should be a piece of cake for us. Right?

Not so fast here. If there's one thing I've learned as a caregiver, it's that no one has all the answers or skills needed to deal with the hard issues of life. No one, that is, except God. The thing I fear most is not being dependent on others, but not having God to depend on. And of course, that will never happen with our awesomely faithful God. His promise was and is: "And lo, I am with you ALWAYS."