The Road of Life.

My Lady on her steed.

I was wondering in the past, aka, looking at old pictures, when I came upon this one hidden in a folder with many other duplicates that the computer has created for me. This is while we we're on vacation 07/2011. Just over ten years ago. How things have developed since then. 

I was asked what Sweetie was like before Dementia. 

Yes, she played golf, she was a veracious reader, and she loved the beach. Born in Pensacola, Fl. while her father was still in the Navy, she grew up as a military brat. She talked most about her life on the military stations. Her favorite was Pearl Harbor, in the '50's. She said that the superstructure of the USS Arizona had not been removed, and was still a sight to behold. 

Her parents were God loving, and when dad got out of the Navy, he joined God's Army and became a preacher. Her history is rather sketchy on this part of her life, she didn't talk much about her younger self after they got out of the Navy. 

I never met her father, he passed away from cancer. I did meet her mom. It was hard for me to know her, she was a stroke victim. We did our best to get to know her. We would get her once a month and take her on outings with us. I smile, for it seems that what we did with her mom, I'm now doing for Sweetie. How life goes on. 

On her cooking, she was a baker. At Thanksgiving, she would be the Pumpkin Pie Queen. That is one trait that she passed on to her kids. 

Thanksgiving was her day, the turkey, stuffing, and all the fixings. That was her time to shine. She loved it. Getting the house all decorated, getting on our Holiday cloths, the house filled with family and friends. 

She loved making banana nut bread. As proof, we had small glass loaf pans, just right for the bread. We have cookie sheets, stone baking plates, all in all a well stocked kitchen. 

We moved to Albuquerque in '95. All the kids had moved out of the house and didn't want to leave California. It was hard on her to do that, for her kids were her life. 

Our plan was that she would stay home and I'd work. That didn't work out so well, and she did have to go back to work. It saved us. It gave her something to do, and made new friends.

Sweetie wasn't as outgoing as I am, and it was difficult for her to find new friends. At church, we had our church friends, but never real close friends. She wasn't one that wanted to have friends so close that we "lived in each other's pockets." Her idea of good friends was at arms length. 

We had each other, and that was enough for both of us. Soon after we moved, through different circumstances, one by one, her kids moved out of California, and in with us. She was so happy to have her kids with us, here in New Mexico. 

As life is, the kids moved out and started their own lives, and would call her all the time. Life was good.

Fast forward to today, I guess we have always depended on each other, for that is all we had. As I look back, taking care of Sweetie was and is my calling. We were two people looking for each other and we found us. Took some reshaping of corners until we fit each other.  

As I look back at our life together, there were times we were up and excited, and then there were times we were down and we have made it this far and there is still much life left to be lived. 

Before we knew we were on the Road to Dementia Town, we were on the Road of Life. Our Driver is the same one that we had long before I knew He was in the driver's seat. There was all those twist and turns, bumps and dips, flat tires and every now and then running out of gas, a time to pause and walk. Yet we were always going down the road with our Shiny Side Up. C'ya, Luv Ya, and God Bless.