>The Lord is My Shepherd

>Today I made my bi-monthly visit to my mother, a resident at Lakeland Nursing Home in Jackson, Mississippi.

Each visit is a milestone.

The first time I cut her hair.

The first time she didn’t remember her grandchildren.

Her transition from verbally abusive mother to loving, complimentary mother.

I have a memoir which was published in Smith’s Six-Word Memoir:

“The Upside of Alzheimer’s: new mother.”

So, today, I took with me two things to my visit with Mom:

A really delicious chocolate chip cookie from Broadstreet Bakery, and

A Bible.

Specifically, the Bible I received as a gift from my grandmother on Easter, 1959. I was eight years old.

For some reason I thought she might like for me to read to her from the Psalms.

BINGO.

When I got to Psalms 23, she started reciting it from memory as I read, a smile spreading across her face like I haven’t seen in years.

She was especially lucid when we got to the verses that said, “He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul.”

After one recitation, I handed her the Bible, which she fingered lovingly, and then looked at me and said, “I love you.”

I love you, too, Mom.

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