Singing to My Peaceful Sweetie

Bettie had the day off from "school" today, so no therapy.

As I watch the therapists work with her, I pick up ideas to try when we are alone. I did a little of that when I was with her today. But mostly, it was just chair-to-chair, face-to-face interaction. When interacting now, I can always get her to speak up, by just cupping my ear. So the hearing part of our communication is so much better than when she mostly whispered.

The thing that is most remarkable about her at present is the nearly complete lack of obvious frustration. Occasionally I see a little when she really needs me to understand something and can't find the right words for it. But even then, it is not a mad "Why did this happen to me?!" kind of thing. For the most part she is somewhere between "I'm fine with this" and "I'm resigned to this", but never "I'm furious at this". If you read the "To Pray for Bettie, Click Here" post, you remember I asked for prayer for her state of mind, so this should not be a surprise.

Before leaving her for the night, I sang her one of the songs that I did for her at our 50th party a few weeks ago. (Three chorus brothers formed a quartet with me and we did "Heart of My Heart", "Irish Blessing", and "Always".)

Tonight I sang her "Always", a lovely Irving Berlin love song from 1926. (Berlin wrote it for his fiancee ... and he meant it. They were married 62 years!) Bettie sang along with me, picking up the words she didn't know as we went. It made for a few "sync issues" (for you musically astute types) but it was sweet, very sweet. ... Well, even if you're not musically astute, you can read the lyrics here. (Note: Get a box of tissues handy.)