My mom was a math teacher.  She was born around 1914, so being a woman in the field of mathematics was very rare.  She was the geometry guru for the State of Oklahoma.  She beat out all of the men when they went to mathematics competition at state.  I still have the medal she won.  She taught math for many years in Pryor and her students loved her. 

But later in life, in her mid seventies, her mind began to falter.  She had Alzheimer's disease.   They say it is the disease that kills the family.  I think they are right.  It is terrible to watch.   Especially for someone as bright as she was.

There came a day that she was dangerous to herself.  She would sleep in the daytime; my dad couldn't get her to sleep when he did, so he was always suffering from lack of sleep.  She would find the car keys in the night, after he had dozed off, and slip out to go "somewhere."  And get lost immediately in a town she had lived in for sixty years.   She didn't know where she was most of the time.

Dad kept wanting me to tell him what to do.  I was honest with him.  "You can't go on like this.  She needs to be somewhere during the night where she is safe.  And so you can sleep.  And that means she will have to be there in the day as well.  But you can go see her every day, and stay with her for as long as you like."  It almost killed him when he made the decision to find a place for her.  But she liked the Alzheimer's unit.  It was full of people and she really loved to be around people.  Lisa and I fixed her room up with her own drapes, bedspread, pictures, etc., so it seemed like home to her. 

One day, I went into the unit, and she had gathered everyone up and had them all sitting at a table.  She was standing at the end of the table teaching.  Teaching math.  She recognized me, and said, "Janie, these people don't want to learn.  I don't know what to do with them."   But she was enjoying herself, so I told her to keep trying.  Not to give up.   "...for I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." Philippians 4:11b.  She was always content.