Candle Story for Grandma Maggie Spence

celticmama36 made this candle.

My maternal grandma, Maggie Spence, had Alzheimer's. I was very close to my grandma and it was hard watching her decline. I hated that some people treated her like she was less, like she was nothing, just because she was sick. In many ways, in spite of the Alzheimer's, I feel that grandma was stronger than all of us, that it was us that had the problem, not her.

On the day that my grandpa died, grandma was in the place in her mind where Alzheimer's patients go, back to a place and time that is safe. When they told her that grandpa was dead, she went back to see him. They had been kept apart the night before which I think is a horrific tragedy. When grandma came back into the kitchen from having seen grandpa's body, she said to me "Mama, I could see William lying there plain as day."

Grandma called me "Mama". It totally floored me and ripped me to tears at the time. It was devastating...grandma didn't know who I was. But, I have since come to realize that this showed just how very close we were, how much she completely loved me. She called me "Mama".

I love you, Grandma. I miss you so much. It has been 18 years since I buried you and my baby girl, but it still seems like yesterday...The tears come just as hard as when Aunt C. told me that you were gone. I knew it when the phone rang. I knew it that last time I visited you that you were going Home to be with your Mama soon. I'll see you when my chores are through, grandma.