Happy Birthday, Mama!

Today is my mama's birthday, and I got to be here for it!

We had a great day. My sister got to come from Lubbock and brought a cake, so we had leftover chicken and dumplins (my favorite) and stew and cornbread for lunch with cake and ice cream for dessert.

A great day, yes, but it was pretty uneventful...I took Dad to the bank and post office. Later this afternoon, we went to Seminole to go to the nursing home to see Pa. You know, I've told you how he pretty much lives in his own world, and the conversations he has with us aren't really with "us" personally. It's just a generic conversation. Sometimes it doesn't matter what you say or ask, his answer is "yeah."

Mom: Ernest, what would you like for dinner?
Pa: Yeah.

Well, tonight we were sitting in his room, and he got this glazed over, far away look in his eyes. He lifted one of his shaking hands in front of him and began making motions. We were trying to figure out what he was doing because the motions were pretty random...long strokes or circles or short lines. Mom asked at one point, "Whatcha doing?"

He said, "Painting."

One of his favorite pasttimes was painting landscapes. He loved wildlife, lakes, and mountains.

He had a Time Life book of the United States on his bedside table, so I began looking through it to see if there were any landscape pictures in it. I found one that had mountains in the background with a lake in the forefront. I showed it to him and he loved it.

"Oh, yeah! Look at that!"

He grabbed onto the book and just looked at it for a minute. Then with his shaky hand he began "adding" to the picture. It about broke my heart, but I didn't say what I was thinking.

On our way home, Dad put to words what I had kept in my heart at the nursing home.

"We can't see what he was painting here, but the Lord has that masterpiece waiting for him in heaven."

Maybe it was heaven he was seeing...only God knows.

We got home, and my aunt had spaghetti, garlic bread, and caesar salad waiting for us with homemade apple pie for dessert...yyyyuuuummmmmm.....

A great day indeed.

Happy birthday, mama!