There are good days... and bad days...

Today as my Mom and I were leaving the extended care, from a visit with my Grandma. My mom ran into an old friend from High School. She stuck out like a sore thumb sitting on the chair in the lobby, far to young to fit in with the older women in wheelchairs covered with handcrafted afaghans. Perhaps she was there visiting someone. I sat quietly and watched the intervention between the two... and I learned so much. She remembered my Mom and told her, "I remembered your eyes!" The eyes being the gateway to the soul told me much about the character of this woman named Valerie.

Valerie and my Mom had gone from Kindergarten through to graduation with each other. They both are the same age (55) and both born in the same month (October). There is one major difference. Valerie lives in the extended care facility waiting out her final moments on earth. After being diagnosed with breast cancer, twice, in the early 90's and then having it removed from another part of her body in the late 90's. She has been told that the cancer is back and has spread. My mom sat and listened intently with tears in her eyes when Valerie told her that she has been given just 3 months to live.

I learned more than just that. I learned she was picked on relentlessly in school. She has a passion on the obsessive side for Elvis. She said she still has 44 record albums at home. Her sisters live in Oregon and Utah. Her parents died 7 years ago. She told of how she always longed to get married and have a family, but the time never came. She is alone but she looked beautiful and vibrant albeit tired.

Today, as I sat on the sidelines watching, I learned a little more about life, a little more about death, and a little more about the compassionate side of my Mother. Those few moments gave me more insight than the plethora of books that I have read in my lifetime.

Today, was a good day.