As I have been looking through our veritable plethora of photos from this San Diego trip, I'm noticing an absence. I mentioned that we invited with us a beloved care giver for my mother, a woman named Elizabeth. And though it is time to move on and blog about other things, I just can't do it without including a special thank you to this woman. She tried hard to stay out of the way of both our family and our camera, because she was trying to respect our family's time together. She spoke often of not stepping on our toes. I know she'll never see this blog but I need to send out into the world the message that she was a beloved part of our vacation. Her presence made it possible for my mother to feel safe and comfortable, for the rest of us to be able to relax and get the rest we needed and know that a loving friend was there for my mom. She was very much a part of our family there and I loved having her.
I was in awe, frankly, of Elizabeth's ability to connect to my mom, to help orient her without putting her down, to be playful and silly which sounds odd but it's what my mom needs. I learned a lot from her about how to interact with my mom by watching her, and I felt uplifted by her joy, her attitude, her interactions with all of us. I consider it a true blessing that my sister met her and that my dad began to work with her as my mom's disease progressed. I hope I can be more like her. Elizabeth, thank you. Now I will go write her an actual card since she won't see this and would probably feel embarrassed if she did.
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