This weekend was such a blessing! Saturday morning we Walked for an End to Alzheimer's.
I have been so excited to participate in this event since last year when the local walks fell on days we were either in the middle of moving Mom and Nana up from Abilene or we were attending attorney meetings. I must admit my planning and preparation for this walk fell short of what I had hoped to achieve, however with the help of amazing friends and family we stepped out for a cause I believe so much in.
My goal for the day was to surround my Mom with people fighitng for her cause. I wanted to show her she was not alone in this battle and that there are millions of people fighting beside her. I believe by the smile on her face and her happy demeanor we can call it a success!
Neeley helped me paint these shirts for our team "Miles for Molly." Although our craftmanship was a little sub-par from a distance our shirts looked great!
Our team consisted of Kelsey, Aunt Tammy, Neeley, Lane, our friends Colton & Bailey, Mom and Myself! Drew had to work that morning so he missed out on the fun. Our cheering section included Nana and Aunt Charlotte.
The Alzheimer's organization had recieved sponsors to donate these memory flowers. There were four different colors representing people with dementia (blue), people caring for someone with dementia (orange), people who have lost someone to dementia (purple), and people who know someone with dementia (orange). We wrote on the petals words of encouragement or memories of the people we were fighting for and once we started to walk all the flowers were "planted" under banners.
The 2 mile walk consisted of walking 6 times around Sam Houston Park, for the benefit of participants an old folk band had been hired to play some tunes. There singing was horrible and their song choices were unbeneficial but the first song they played as we started our walk was "You are my Sunshine." This song makes me cry everytime I hear it as it was the song my Grandy would sing to me whenever I walked through the door. We knew in that moment that he was on the journey with us and he was walking along side us!
I was so blessed and humbled by all the people and stories represented Saturday Morning and even more blessed and honored to be surrounded by friends and family who would spend their Saturday morning walking 2 miles in an effort to raise awareness.
Sunday morning the whole crew attended church services at Central Church of Christ, the church my Nana and Grandy raised their family in and helped pastor for many many years. Mom and Nana had decided to place membership back at Central after moving back and Sunday was their "official" day. The new preacher had warned he wanted to share Mom's story and we all went to hear what he had to say. He spoke a few words on Mom's diagnosis and the fear she has with it and the long road of uncertainty ahead of all of us. He told of how when he first met Mom he knew the Central family would be able to minister great love and encouragement to Mom on this journey but after speaking with Mom for a few minutes he changed his mind... he realized SHE would be the one ministering the love and encouragement to the Central people! Then he asked that everyone close to Mom and Nana and our family come and surround them, put their hands on them, and we lifted Mom's illness, Nana's strength and our family up in prayer. It was awesome! I have been attending non-denominational churches since I was a Junior in college for the more up beat worship services, but I remembered what I have missed so much about a solid church family on Sunday. Being lifted up in prayer by name in the middle of church service is a big deal and I so appreciated being able to witness that on Sunday and cannot wait to see the blessings for not only My Mom, Nana and Myself but so many others that will come out of their relationship and membership at Central.
