September 21, 2026
My mother passed away on September 21, 2024, from complications of Alzheimer’s. It was a hard day for us. It is sometimes hard to remember her before Alzheimer’s caused us to lose her bit by bit.
People think Alzheimer’s is just a problem of forgetting. It isn’t always. Mom’s dying brain made things up. Yes, sometimes she would remember the past. I never knew how much of the past she remembered was accurate.
Since I looked so much like her, she knew I was family. I believe she thought I was her mother sometimes. It was sad to see her struggle to figure out who I was. She’d ask me my age over and over.
As Alzheimer’s disease progressed, my mom became unable to speak more than saying yes or no. She was reduced to just being able to mumble by the end. She appeared to understand simple things. She was bedridden for the last two years of her life.
It was heartbreaking to see my strong mother reduced to scattered bits of soul on the wind.
I try to remember the earlier days, before Alzheimer’s began the long goodbye. It is hard to get past the last eight years of her life and remember who she was before.
There are times I can close my eyes and see her making biscuits while the bacon is frying. I can feel the seat of the stool while the wonderful smell of biscuits baking and bacon frying was heavenly after morning chores before school. Sometimes, instead of bacon, it was the smoked sausage that my dad made being fried.
I can see her walking down the hill from the dairy barn to the house after milking the cows.
Being dyslexic, I struggled to read in first grade. I remember Mom coming home with a reading kit from the University of Southern Mississippi. She spent hours teaching me to read. I am forever grateful she did.
Mom signed us up for 4-H. We would make our own clothes and compete in the 4-H competitions. I can remember Mom showing me how to cut out patterns, laying out the pattern, pinning them in place, and cutting cloth. She would lean over my shoulder while helping me use the sewing machine.
I remember she insisted I take typing in high school. I didn’t want to take typing since I wasn’t going to be a secretary. She told me it would help in college since my papers would need to be typed. I’ve used typing for my entire career. I am grateful for her insistence that I take typing.
She was so proud when I graduated from college. Of all the times she took pictures, she forgot to bring her camera!
I remember Mom’s face the first time she got to see my baby. It was full of wonder and delight. Her eyes sparkled with joy as she held her first grandbaby. She spent some time showing me how to be a first-time mom.
Mom loved taking pictures of her children, grandchildren, and nature. When her nieces and nephews got married, her gift to them was being the wedding photographer. Mom had some of her nature pictures published in magazines.
I recall a quote, “The life of the dead is placed in the heart of the living” – Cicero
She lives in my heart with love, next to sorrow.
Blackberry Homestead 