Some of you may recall an amazing story of one of my elderly friends from the Albernia Home for the Elderly. Dona Clemencia has some sort of dementia and spends much of her day mumbling sounds that make no sense. When I visited her with a group of women from Barrington, Illinois, I had a very lucid conversation with her and a time of prayer.
Today I spoke again with Clemencia. She had been blabbering, "Blah, blah, blah," and the nursing home staff had been trying to get her to repeat some kind of meaningful sound instead. I walked over to her, looked lovingly in her eyes and asked if she remembered me.
"Si," she replied.
Once again, I had a lucid conversation with her and told her about Jesus' love. She assured me that she understood me and kept looking lovingly into my eyes. Her words were few, but deliberate.
As I walked away, she resumed her earlier talk, "Blah, blah, blah."
Next, I pulled out a magic marker and huge pad of paper to try to communicate with Don Carlos, my friend who is deaf and almost blind. With great effort he was able to read my words. I held a Reader's Digest version of a Bible study on Luke 22 with him. He was thrilled! Day after day he lives isolated in his own dark, soundless world. But God's light shone on him today!
(The photo is of Don Carlos as I visited him today.)
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