Turning the Impossible Into the Possible

          Maybe if I ignore it, it will go away.  That’s how I coped with my mother’s issues as I was growing up and through my adulthood.  I didn’t label her.  I never used the words dementia or Alzheimer’s to explain her behavior.  Yes, she had paranoid tendencies.   She accused my dad of bizarre indiscretions.  She heard strangers talking about her in the post office line.  But she wasn’t my problem.  She had my father to deal with her, so it was easier for me to ignore her symptoms. 
            Then Dad died.  Now she was my problem.  Things were far worse than I had realized.  When I helped her pay the bills she could barely sign her name on checks.  When I visited she had tied elaborate rope knots around her door knobs to keep the neighbors out.  I ran into the same quandary as Dad had confided to me in the past.  She needed professional help but convincing a paranoid person that they need help is an impossible task.
            A local policeman called me.   Apparently Mom had been going to the police station several times a week to report that the neighbors were stealing her underwear in the middle of the night. Something needed to be done but what?
            I could no longer ignore it.  It wasn’t going to go away.  But nothing I tried to do for her helped.  Finally as a last resort I turned this impossible situation over to God in prayer. Things fell into place.  A doctor was recommended by a friend.  The proper medications were prescribed.  Mom agreed to visit assisted living facilities and chose one that she felt comfortable with.  Her house was sold.  She willingly gave up her car.    
            After thirty years of ignoring my mother’s illness or hoping it would go away on its own, I finally realized that God was just waiting for me to turn to him for help.  From now on, God would be my first resort, not my last.    

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