Coming soon - "Love Endures"
I'll soon be posting chapters from my book in progress: "Love Endures: A Christian View of Dementia". Feel free to print these out for personal use. I'd be happy to hear any feedback and reccomendations for improvement as well!
Do have any insights for me on the following:
ReplyDeleteMy dad died a few days ago. He was a Christian pastor for 42 years and loved the Lord. He got Parkinson's and dementia set in. We noticed a marked decline in his ability to think straight over the last 5 to 7 years, but he still loved to read the Bible and pray and attend church. Then he got cancer in February this year. With the pain and stress of both diseases he rapidly went downhill. After we had to admit him to the nursing home on March 25, he became increasingly confused, dazed. Right after he was admitted my brother in law tried to read some Scripure to him and he cut him off saying, "Why? For what purpose?"
At other times a Christian friend would pray with him and he would show appreciation, even saying,"Amen".
My mom offered to play the daily bread devotional for him like they always used to do, but he didn't want to hear it.
Later as he was just days before death, and could no longer communicate, a pastor tried to read Scripture and pray with him and he became visibly agitated. The same thing happened when my brother in law tried to read Scripture a day or two before he died. These reactions are extremely puzzling to us and certainly not what we expected from one who loved reading the Bible and loved God. Do you have any experience with this? Is there any explanation for it?