Another Mother’s Day Without Mother – Thanks Alzheimer’s.

I tend to get a little quieter this time of year as Mother's Day approaches.  I love Mother's Day. I always have.  Even when the gifts were colored construction paper flowers, and not the real thing. I also love the sentimental videos that are ever-present around Mother's Day, life this one from Hallmark. Yes, I cried.

Things have changed for me in the last two years.  Yes, I still have my kids, and have added some extras this year, but, what I don't have is my Mom. Gladys Benefield was a great Mom. She came by it so naturally.  Wife of a military man, she ran our home efficiently, and that's saying a bunch with 5 children.  I don't remember her working outside of the home until the oldest of us were in high school.  She took a job a Johnson's Bakery as a cake decorator, then later working in the stationery department at Dillard's.

She fixed dinner every night, walked the floor over missed curfews, and got easily embarrassed with anything slightly off color.  She took us to church, she sewed matching dresses for the girls.  Her greatest joy was seeing us all happy and healthy, until she became Grandmother.  Mom stopped working when Shane  was born with Down Syndrome.  She was his lifeline, and he was hers. I think that's one reason that this years Hallmark Commercial is so special to me.  Mom and Shane had a special bond from the day he was born.

Alzheimer's Disease robbed my Mom of her precious memories of colored construction paper flowers, and cards from out of state family, and the flower beds planted just for her for Mother's day.  She didn't remember the 3 Mother's Days that she spent in assisted living, and she didn't remember any of her children the last 2 years of her life. But she remembered Shane the longest.  On Mother's Day 2018, just a few months after she lost her battle with Alzheimer's, I took some of our favorite pictures of Mom in assisted living and created our own Hallmark video of our 1st Mother's Day without her.

Take a look:

I hope that you are able to share Mother's Day with your Mom, and I hope that you never have to feel the loss of the sweetest person in the world; your Mother.  And, if you could, support the Alzheimer's Association in their effort to find a cure. This Momma-less daughter would be so grateful.