andave's place

Continuation of my family trip. Re-editing of and adding to my last blog.

The driving was, for me, the best part, because I got to read and listen to music. The day my parents picked me up, however, I didn't do much besides sleep and listen to music. Wasn't quite yet in the right frame of mind for reading. Not until the road home did I get much reading done. So, we got to Canada late Sunday night. My aunt waited up for us, and with customary Lebanese hospitality, asked if we wanted food or something. We just wanted bed. The next day, we all woke up and greeted each other, and I got to see two of my cousins. They're all older than me and my sister by far. But the shocker was to see my girl cousin. She has neurological problems and is practically a vegetable now. The doctors are calling it Alzheimers but they aren't sure because it isn't typical. The frontal lobe of her brain is shrinking, and she can't talk, feed herself, use the restroom, walk, or do anything on her own. While we were there I fed her most of the time so my aunt could get to relax for a little while. That was God working through me because I couldn't have done that on my own. I would have thrown up because she couldn't control her mouth, so she drooled. She's trapped in her body and the worst thing is that they don't know if she's coherent or not. But sometimes, her eyes would focus and I knew she realized what was going on. Other times while I was feeding her she'd take the spoon in her hand and just stare at it, as though she was wondering why in blazes couldn't she get that spoon up to her mouth. That's when I'd start hurting for her. The amazing thing, though, is that I actually felt love for my cousin. Though her getting worse has been gradual, perhaps over the last eight years, I can't really remember a time when she was perfectly coherent and I never felt a close kinship with her. But she picked up on the love God put in my heart for her and she trusted me. I felt truly honored then. She held my hand while she ate, and she would hold on to me when her mom or her caretaker made her stand or walk. Her trust wasn't based on my society standing or on my looks, money, or influence. God thoroughly blessed me with that present.

Well, my Dad's home and it's dinnertime. Evidently this trip is going to take a long while to blog over. I still haven't talked about the forests!