Failure is Not an Option!

I had some amazing teachers as a child who inspired me. My second grade teacher, Mrs. Hayes immediately comes to mind. Oh, how I loved that woman! She was kind and patient, guiding and directing the 30 impressionable lives for the 9 months she had us. We learned how to add and subtract, all about the World in Social Studies and how to write in Cursive. But we learned so much more from Mrs. Hayes. We learned trust and responsibility and that honesty was the best policy. I'll never forget Mrs. Hayes or that feeling when she would have me collect the milk money each morning. It was good to be so young and trusted to do an important task.

The famous people below overcame that feeling of failure and reached for the stars. They struggled with disappointment and criticism, but somewhere along the way in spite of discouragement... they excelled.

Abraham Lincoln, former US President first went into politics at the age of 23 when he campaigned for a seat in the Illinois General Assembly and failed. He then opened a general store which failed after only a few months.

Harry S. Truman, former US President was rejected by the US Military & Naval Academies due to his poor eyesight. At one point he was a clerk in a newspaper mailroom, and also an usher in a movie theater.

Michael Jordan, the most famous name in basketball was actually cut from his high school basketball team.

John Wayne - Before his successful acting career he was rejected from the United States Naval Academy.

Steven Spielberg - This household name dropped out of high school and applied to attend film school three times but was unsuccessful due to his C grade average.

Beethoven - His music teacher once told him that he was a hopeless composer.

Babe Ruth - This baseball legend struck out 1,330 times.

Henry Ford - The Ford Motor Co was Henry Ford’s third business, the first two didn’t work out.

Winston Churchill - This former British Prime Minister did poorly in school and had a speech impediment in his early years.

Walt Disney - He was fired by the editor of a newspaper for lacking in ideas.

Soichiro Honda - The founder of Honda was turned down for an engineering job by Toyota after World War Two.

Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita - These two were the founders of Sony, but one of their first products was an electric rice cooker. They only sold 100 or so of these cookers because they tended to burn rice rather than cook it.

Charles Darwin - His father told him he would amount to nothing and would be a disgrace to himself and his family.

Albert Einstein - He learned to speak at a late age and performed poorly in school.

Thomas Edison - As a boy he was told by his teacher that he was too stupid to learn anything.

John Grisham - This best selling novelist’s first novel was rejected by sixteen agents and twelve publishing houses.

Isaac Newton - He failed at running the family farm and did poorly in school.

Henry Ford said,
“Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.”

Fly Away Monday

 

 

True, with all the things we've been balancing these past few weeks/months, it's now apparent that maybe we were just a small part of a bigger picture! It amazes me, it shouldn't, when things work out for the best. I run in circles most days, there's so much to do I really don't know what to tackle first. Everyone I know, their life is the same. We still manage to eat and sleep, but the rest is all work right now. I told my husband I am getting superstitious in my old age. Lately I've been wearing my Grandmother's wedding band and somehow it gives me strength for the day, super powers! I can just hear her laugh! Whatever the day holds we are making progress and there are many blessings. Hope your day is filled with some happy magic moments too!

 

Destined for Sainthood, Mrs. Jefferson...Mrs. J. to her 5th graders at Northside, has earned her halo. She has put in 25 years of early mornings to set up for projects and many late nights grading papers.

She's worried about test scores and averages and achievement ratios.

Twenty-five years of reading aloud, sometimes twice for those who didn't listen the first time.

She's passed out a million papers to  hundreds of children, giving words of encouragement to the ones who needed it the most.

She made a difference in the lives of many kids who will call her "My Favorite Teacher."

Mrs. Jefferson will retire this week after dedicating her life and her talents to the lucky kiddos who called her Mrs. J.

Friday's graduation ceremony was filled with praise for students who had worked hard this year. President Obama had rewarded many with Certificates of Achievement. Others received math or reading awards. Mrs. Jefferson made a comment as she passed out the citizenship pins, she said, "These may be the most important awards of all, for if we do not teach our children the ability to get along with each other they won't be able to cope in the world." Wise words. 

She's no doubt looking forward to time she can finally call her own. Maybe even sleeping a little later or taking a trip any month of the year, even September! But there will never be time in her life that she won't be thinking of those bright faces that looked to her for guidance and knowledge. There will never be an afternoon that her inner clock won't tell her it's 3PM.

She'll remember the ones that struggled and the ones that excelled. The class clowns and the ones who needed that extra hug. She'll forever hear "Mrs. J......."

One thing for sure, Northside will sure miss Mrs. Jefferson. She was that teacher who helped other teachers. No project too large or time consuming, she was the teacher you hoped your child would get.

GRANDson Gavin told me, "Nana, this was my best year, I wish it wasn't over." Next year is middle school and he is on to the next stage of his life...just like Mrs. J.

If she misses him, all she has to do is just call...

Life Is Short, Wear Your Party Pants

I have a book that I can go to for encouragement anytime I feel the need and here lately, I’ve needed it a lot. Life Is Short-Wear Your Party Pants by stress management consultant Loretta LaRoche reminds us to slow down, love more and treat ourselves more kindly. Sometimes we can be our own worst enemy. I know I beat myself over the head when I don’t get all of the things on my “To-Do” list done. I stretch myself too thin and then wonder why I can’t get it all done…sound familiar?? Her practical advice about wearing your Party Pants will set you free to claim peace and happiness in your life!


Loretta said her Mom used to say “You never know.” They would clean the house on Saturdays because…”You never know.” In the middle of a wonderful meal her Mother would remind them to save leftovers because…“You never know. Small pieces of wax paper were saved, as well as string and empty egg cartons because…well, you know! She said she kept trying to understand what it was she didn’t know but needed to know. She used to ask her Mother if something bad was going to happen, but then her Mom would counter with, “Someday you’ll see.” She had a hard time coping with all of this as a child, but the thing that really pushed her over the edge was underwear. Her Mother bought her the most hideous underpants, on sale…the kind that wouldn’t wear out, ever. Loretta longed for the kind that were pretty and feminine with little flowers and lace. When her Mother finally had a weak moment and bought her a pair she was ecstatic, until Mom said the usual: that she couldn’t wear them often because… “You never know.” She added they were going to be her “Party Pants.” Just how many parties did a nine year old go to? The pants stayed in the drawer surrounded by their ugly step-underpants. She wore them twice, she still had them but they didn’t fit anymore!

Loretta mentions a favorite story about a woman who was in her kitchen preparing roast beef for dinner. Her young daughter was watching her make the meal, and the young girl asked, “Mommy, why did you cut the ends off the roast beef?”And the Mother told her: “Honey, that’s just the way you prepare it.”“But why?”And the Mother had to think about it for a second and acknowledged, “You know, I’m not sure why. It’s just the way my Mother did it, and I’m sure she had a good reason.”“Let’s ask Grandma.”So the woman called her Mother and asked why she cut the ends off the roast beef. The older woman had to admit she didn’t really know why she id it either, but she did it because that’s the way her Mother prepared the roast beef. So they called the old woman, the child’s great-great-grandmother who was now in her 90’s, and asked her why she cut the ends off the roast beef before cooking it.“Well,” the old lady said, “it’s because I didn’t have a roasting pan big enough to hold it!”

How many of us have inherited that scarcity mentality from our parents, a mentality that says we shouldn’t celebrate and use the good things in our everyday lives. But like the woman who cooked the roast beef we should look beyond what we’ve been brought up with to try to find our own path to a happy life.

It’s a great self-help book that will bring insight to your life and you’ll laugh your socks off the whole way through!

Please, wear your prettiest panties today!

Strangers In Our Lives

Many times in my life I've come across strangers in grocery lines, paying a bill or sitting next to them at a vet's office with one of our critters. I used to be one who developed a 'profile' about a person in minutes. Over time & with maturity I've learned if not from my own experiences then from those who I took the time to listen to, that all is not what it often seems. Once again, I'm glad I listened.

I met a lady at the vet's the other day. She waited patiently for her name to be called but in the meantime, sat and shared her story while giving my puppy some neighborly lovin. She told me how she and her husband had been coming to this vet for years and they trusted them explicitly. She had to leave her pup for a visit for a few days to go to the hospital as she was having trouble with her "tricky ticker," she needed her meds adjusted. I listened to her story and then asked "And where is your husband today?" She smiled and said, "You know he got me this dog 14 plus years ago. He wasn't feeling too good and didn't want me to be lonely. He had cancer and before he got too sick he wanted to take me out and pick out a dog. I've had her ever since. He's been gone and he was right, I got lonely."

Just then her name had been called and her little pooch was brought up for her. She scooped up that dog who was nearly blind and deaf and she loved on it so much. I asked her, "What did you name it?"I thought she didn't hear me as she was scooping up her credit card and invoice. She looked over at me and said,

"I call her Honey, this way I'm never lonely and it feels like he never left."

A Full Life

Every morning when I read the paper, I scan the obituaries. We take the state paper, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, they have listings for the whole state. I can't tell you how many times I have come across the obituary of someone who has led an extraordinary life that bears repeating. Since Mom is now in a nursing home I've been privileged to meet some of those extraordinary people. I used to do a newsletter for the facility and we had a "Resident of the Month" column that allowed us a glimpse of someones' life. It amazed me when I interviewed the person or more often the family, their great accomplishments came out. Nursing homes across the country house former artists, people who worked and excelled in industry, teachers who made a difference in the lives of children...and Moms and Dads who have outlived their children. Sad but true.

The following obituary was in last year's paper and it chronicles an amazing life. Please take the time to read this and if you know someone who's in a facility, go visit them soon and let them share a little of their life with you!

Al Kuettner, who covered the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s as a UPI reporter and then returned a generation later to find the South had made major progress in race relations, died Saturday at the age of 95. Kuettner died at Concordia Care Center in Bella Vista, Ark. He had been in declining health over the past few months. "He was one of the best reporters of his time, covering the civil rights movement day in and day out, always with an eye toward covering the story thoroughly and accurately, without bias or distortion," said Tobin Beck, former executive editor of United Press International. Beck edited Kuettner's book March to a Promised Land , which was published in 2006 by Capital Books.
Alfred G. Kuettner was born in Atlanta on Oct. 17, 1913, and grew up in a culture sharply separated by race. He attended Georgia State College - earning tuition money by working aboard freighters steaming to Africa. His ambition was to be a journalist, and after working at a weekly newspaper in Decatur, Ga., Kuettner was hired in 1942 by the wire service United Press, which later became United Press International. A decade later he was assigned to cover the budding civil rights movement full time, based in Atlanta. He first met a young Martin Luther King in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955 at the start of the bus boycott prompted by Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat to a white rider.
John Herbers, bureau manager for UPI in Jackson, Miss., in the late 1950s and early 1960s before becoming a civil rights reporter for The New York Times , recalled Kuettner's courage in covering what initially was an unpopular story in the South.
"I think he was one of the most remarkable journalists of his period," Herbers said Sunday by phone from his home in Bethesda, Md. "He wasn't in it for himself, his motives and accomplishments were based on his love of the profession and how important that he felt news of the civil rights movement was to society.
"When the civil rights movement began, not many journalists were covering the story in the South. Al was one of the early acquaintances of Martin Luther King. At the time the civil rights movement was not particularly popular. Al was a pioneer in his coverage of the story. Most station owners and news agencies did not want the story covered, because they were hoping things would go back to the way they had been. It took a great deal of originality and courage to report on the civil rights movement at that time."
Kuettner also had poise and savvy in potentially dangerous situations. When covering the integration of Birmingham's West End High School in 1963, Kuettner needed to find a phone to dictate his stories to UPI's Atlanta regional bureau. He arranged to rent a phone at a house across the street from the school for $5 a day. When the woman of the house upped the price to $100, Kuettner asked a favor of the local phone company, which installed a private line for him on a pole outside the school. But a hostile crowd shouted him down whenever he tried to use the line. Kuettner responded by asking the hecklers to line up and dictate their comments to the surprised UPI Atlanta desk editor on the other end. They did, and Kuettner's phone was not bothered again.
One highlight of Kuettner's career was covering Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington, D.C., in August 1963 during a civil rights rally at the Lincoln Memorial. Kuettner recalled in his book that King's speech had been fairly unremarkable until King launched into the "dream" section, which had not been included in the advance text given to reporters. Kuettner was covering the rally with veteran UPI White House reporter Merriman Smith, and both scrambled to keep up with King's changes to the expected speech.
"We were writing furiously, trying to get down his words, because there were no notes, no text for this one - only King at his best," Kuettner wrote later. "We had no time to look at the crowd's reaction, but it was unnecessary. The reaction could be heard and felt like something visceral, now sweeping up almost in a sob from the depths of many hearts, making the long trek to Washington at last worthwhile for them."
Kuettner was a stickler for accuracy. On June 6, 1966, when another wire service reported that an assassin had killed James Meredith, who had broken the color barrier by enrolling at the University of Mississippi, Kuettner was working in his garden in Atlanta.
Kuettner got in his car, raced to his office, and called the hospital switchboard. Using what he hoped was an authoritative tone, Kuettner told the operator to put him through to surgery. When a male voice answered, Kuettner asked the condition of Meredith. "He is very much alive," the man responded. "I should know. I am the doctor working on him."
Kuettner was known for keeping calm even in the most stressful situations.
"What I remember about Al most was this calm demeanor even amid an anti-civil rights demonstration where a surging crowd would have rattled most," said Joe Chapman, a former UPI photographer who often covered events with Kuettner. "He was relaxed talking to anyone, from Martin Luther King to white extremists such as J.B. Stoner."
More than 20 years after Kuettner's reporting had taken him to Little Rock, Ark.; Oxford, Miss.; Birmingham, Montgomery and Selma, Ala.; Washington; New York City and dozens of places small and large, he went back to see what changes the movement had brought. He began work on a manuscript that would be completed another 20 years later.
"I realized that towns like Selma, Birmingham, Montgomery, and many others have begun to outlive the shadows of race reaction," he wrote. "There has developed, to say the least, acceptance of federal determination to protect the ability of citizens and their families to receive equalized education unhampered by restrictive race rules, to attend public events based on ability to pay a ticket price, and to live in peace "from sea to shining sea."
He went on: "I thought of the legacy left by those black and white who in spite of the bigots were determined that the races could live together in a country where men and women accepted and respected those of all colors who crossed their paths in peace."
When Barack Obama was elected president in November 2008, Kuettner commented that he had not expected to see that milestone passed in his lifetime.
"He said 'we passed a phase. There's still a long way to go, but the foundation isn't sand anymore, it's in concrete,'" recalled his assistant, Stacy Gibson. Before the decline of his health in recent months, Kuettner had been planning to research and write a second book about race relations in the United States.
After nearly two decades covering civil rights for UPI, Kuettner left the wire service in 1968 to become senior editor at Pace Magazine in Los Angeles. The magazine geared toward teenage and young adult readers folded after two years. In 1970 Kuettner became education editor at the Cincinnati Post and Times-Star, and in 1972 he became public information officer for the University of Cincinnati, helping with the school's transition from a private to a public institution. In 1979, Al and his wife Helen purchased the Gravette, Ark., News Herald , but they retired several years later when Helen's health began to fail. Helen, his childhood sweetheart whom Al had married in 1953, died in 2007 at the age of 86.
Kuettner is survived by son Christopher and wife Christina of Morrow, Ohio, and their family of Ben, Michelle, Samantha and April. Christopher said his father tried to get into the military during World War II but was rejected because of a heart murmur, and so went to work for United Press in what ironically was a high-stress job.
"I think what he went through was as stressful as combat," Christopher said. He said in the early 1950s Kuettner went to South America to report on revolutions where he was close to gunfire. "I asked him what made him the most afraid, and he said it was flying on a DC-3 through mountain passes in the Andes. If the plane got lost in the clouds that would be it, you'd be dead."
Christopher remembers his dad as the ultimate professional journalist. "To my mind, he was kind of like James Bond with a pen and not a gun," Christopher said. "He was the consummate journalist - get three sources to confirm your information, and do your homework."

*Photo courtesy of http://timeinc.net/

Healthy Mind, Healthy Body

via Lisa Hammed @ Bakers Dozen

Some days I just go through the motions, barely noticing the beauty all around me. When my life gets busy, hey it stays busy... I kind of run out of gas. I need a jump, some STP, new spark plugs. Something that will make me have some get up and go. When I hit one of these "spells," my enthusiasm for life just evaporates. The Recession, stressful days and just living life make us lose that zeal for growing in mind and spirit.

Sometimes you just run low on Inspiration!

Intent.com is a Wellness website that and shares people's intentions – personal, social, spiritual and environmental. It also is a wonderful source of great articles on Healthy Living, Relationships, The Planet and Spirit...all subjects that influence our quality of Life.

Go visit and add your Intent for the Day!

My Intent is to find the source of my negative body image.

My Intent is to let go of the need to be in "control" and relax.

My Intent is to forgive myself and move on.

My Intent is to acknowledge the balance...if I complain when things aren't peachy, I also must compliment when things are going good~

My Intent is to not take things personally.

My Intent is to weather the storm outside, and calm the one inside.

Mrs. Hayes, 2nd Grade

I love to listen to XM radio when I'm running my errands. Most of the time it's set on 156, the Oprah Channel. Gail King is not just Oprah's Best Friend, she's like that friend from High School that tells it like it is! The one that listens and agrees AND the one that gives honest advice when you need that. She meddles in her kids lives, loves...loves...loves things

and occasionally forgets what she's talking about...just like I do!

The shows range from fashion to food to Classic Oprah, the shows that bear repeating. I heard one from way back...1989... the other day that touched my heart. Oprah had her 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Duncan on her show. She introduced her to the audience and when Mrs. Duncan walked out on the set to join her, Oprah melted into a pool of emotion. She was unable to interview her former teacher, so overcome with love and admiration for the woman who played such an important part in her 9 year old life. She blubbered and sobbed, barely able to say more than "Mrs. Duncan, I love you!" That deep love that is usually reserved for Moms and Grandmothers. She finally was able to talk and she said, "You let me collect the milk money everyday!"

That's when I lost it.

I too had a Mrs. Duncan, she was my 2nd grade teacher Mrs. Hayes. Oh, how I loved that woman. She was kind and patient, guiding and directing the 30 impressionable lives for the 9 months she had us. We learned how to add and subtract, all about the World in Social Studies and how to write in Cursive. But we learned so much more from Mrs. Hayes. We learned trust and responsibility and that

Honesty was the Best Policy.

I'll never forget Mrs. Hayes or that feeling when she would have me collect the milk money each morning. It was good to be so young and trusted to do an important task.

I have to go get a tissue now.........

Keep on at it!

Britain's Ivy Bean celebrated her 104th birthday in September. Possibly the oldest person on a social networking site, she currently has over 50,000 followers! Ivy lives in a "care home" in the northern English city of Bradford, near Leeds, and updates her followers about the ups and downs of her life, from getting her hair done with her good friend Mabel, to eating fish and chips and watching her favorite game show, "Deal or No Deal," on TV.

Last month, she tweeted her sadness that her friend Norma had passed away overnight.

Before getting onto Twitter, Ivy was already active on Facebook,

where she maxed out her 5,000-friend limit in no time!

You go Girl!
But she prefers Twitter because it's easier than Facebook, it only requires updating. She has linked both accounts so that her tweets automatically show up on Facebook. Ivy knows people must think it's amazing that she's so active on online, but she thinks it's a good way of keeping in touch with people. And for those who find it hard to jump on the Twitter bandwagon, she offers this advice:
"Keep on at it."

"Old" is not the first word that comes to mind with when you think of this friendly lady with a warm and infectious smile! A resident of Hillside Manor, she recently won a gold medal at the residential home's Over-75 Olympics in the Frisbee-throwing category. And she enjoys bowling on the home's Nintendo Wii. No surprise for a lady who was a gymnast when she was younger.


What do her friends think of her online popularity? "I think they might be jealous," she said with a joking laugh. Others at Hillside Manor also have Twitter accounts, but not her friend Mabel Davis, 87. "Just put me on yours, Ivy," she says.

Already, Ivy's Centenarian Tweeting and Facebooking have attracted International attention, and news outlets from around the world have interviewed her. Her daughter, Sandra Logan, 61, said she arrived for a visit one day only to find her mom busy with a call.
"I'm on the phone with Israel,"
Ivy called out to her daughter!


Part of the reason Ivy is so active online is because the care home makes activities for its residents a priority. One resident wanted to learn more about photography, so he now takes a course once a week at a local college. The home also helped another resident get a passport so he could visit his son in Spain. Hillside Manor also recently hosted a quiz with students from the local college. The subject was history. The Hillside Manor residents won. "We're trying to do something different than knitting or crochet," explained Pat Wright, the home's manager.

Ivy came from a large family with four brothers and three sisters, all are gone now. She was nearly 40 when she got married during the "Great War" to Harold Gibson Bean. He was a cook in the army, and she worked in a mill. After the war, the couple got a job "in service" to a wealthy family. Ivy Bean was a housekeeper and her husband was the cook and butler to Lord and Lady Guinness in Northamptonshire, England. Daughter Sandra, their only child, was born two years later, in 1947. The couple retired together but Harold Bean died a few years later, when he was in his 70s. Ivy now has three great-grandchildren with two more on the way, they all call their famous great-grandmother "Little Nan."

Wright says Bean is "very open" to new suggestions and new ideas and is always willing to have a go at something. "She must have been like that all her life," Wright says. "It's not a new thing. I think if you're one of those people that'll try anything through your life,
it doesn't stop when you get old."

As she types an update on her Twitter page, Ivy certainly seems to be displaying an open mind. Would she agree? "I don't know if I have or not," she says. "But there's something there. There must be!"

(source CNN.com)


Add Ivy Bean on Facebook

Follow Ivy Bean on Twitter

The Post Secret Project

Everyone has a secret. Frank Warren is the founder and curator of the PostSecret Project, in which he invites people from every walk of life to send him creatively decorated postcards bearing secrets they have never told anyone.

So far, Warren has collected more than 200,000 of the highly personal postcards mailed to him anonymously. In 2006, his PostSecret blog, postsecret.blogspot.com, which receives more than 3 million visitors every month, was awarded six weblog awards, including “Best American Blog” and “Blog of the Year.”

Since its inception in 2005, PostSecret.blogspot.com has been a safe haven to share their confessions, their hopes or their dreams. The instructions are simple: create a four by six postcard, decorate it along with an honest but never-before-confessed secret. Then mail it to Frank Warren, a complete stranger who may or may not post it on his blog. Each Sunday, people around the world find out they are not alone with their long buried but unforgotten secrets. To those who follow it religiously, PostSecret is both inspirational and empowering. Seeing others’ brave confessionals can sometimes give them strength to confront their own fears. You could also look it as cheap therapy at the low, low cost of a postage stamp.

Warren’s first book, “PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions From Ordinary Lives” (ReganBooks) became a New York Times bestseller. He followed it up with “The Secret Lives of Men and Women: A PostSecret Book and A Lifetime of Secrets.” His traveling exhibition of PostSecret cards was called by The Washington Post, “One of the five best art shows in 2005.”

The All-American Rejects approached Warren about using actual PostSecret images in their “Dirty Little Secret” music video in 2005. They offered Warren $1,000, but instead he asked them to donate $2,000 to 1-800-SUICIDE, where he volunteered. The donation was made, and the music video became one of the most requested on MTV. Warren has now released another “PostSecret” book focusing on religion and spirituality, “PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and God.”
Warren continues to receive between 100 and 200 postcards every day. He updates his Web site on Sundays and is working to produce four more “PostSecret” books. He continues to call himself an “accidental artist” because he has no artist background or training.
“I have been asked many times why I started this,” he said. “It still feels to me as though this project found me. All I try to do is make the right decisions every day to protect the integrity of the project - and learn to trust the journey.”Warren has appeared on the Today Show, 20/20, CNN, MSNBC, ABC’s The View, CBC, NPR, and Fox News.

Go to the website and watch the youtube video, it's thought provoking message needs to be heard.

Look on the Bright Side!

Mom has always looked on the bright side. She never allowed herself the luxury of feeling sorry for herself, and there were times when she would have had every right to do that. Being an only child she was doted on, even during depression years. Her Mom and Dad were always there for her and they were extremely close. After she married, she and Dad moved to California and I can imagine just how hard that was for her, being so far from her parents who were the rock of her life. Marriage is an amazing relationship, someone you aren’t related to and often haven’t known that long…yet the bond is immense. She talks about those years a lot. Her memory now is in the early years, her dementia has robbed her of middle and present years.

This picture was taken by her Granddaughter Stephanie when she was visiting a couple of summers ago. When Stephanie was a baby Mom took care of her while I worked. She basked in the joy of “Motherhood” once again and loved having charge of a little one. They played on the floor, read books and took walks. All of the things that Grandparents are supposed to do to forge those close relationships. I never worried about her care or if her needs were being met, Mom was there to step in.

Mom now lives in a nursing facility that specializes in Dementia Care. It's set up like a home with living room, dining room, kitchen, bedrooms and a nice outdoor area with a courtyard that they can come and go freely in warm weather. My Mother's move from her farm could have been traumatic, but she feels like this is home and is very secure and happy again. That means the world to me. When she reached the point that she could no longer live alone, Windcrest provided her the safe home she needed. It's a close-knit little group of 16 ladies who share their lives daily and have become family. Even now, Mom keeps that smile on her face and looks on the bright side. Surely we can learn a lesson from her to make the best of every day that the Lord gives us.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!