Before Mom’s Alzheimer’s Diagnosis: Guest Post at Mrs Disciple

I love writing letters to my mom but it took me months to write a “Letter to Me” for my dear friend Kelly Smith at Mrs Disciple.

Kelly and I met through Jen Hatmaker’s For the Love launch team this summer and have maintained an online relationship over the last few months, sharing encouragement and feedback as writers, wives, moms and believers. Her weekly #FridayFive linkup has been a great tool for building our tight knit blogging community.

An experienced occupational therapist, Kelly recently gave me the greatest compliment by sharing my Gift Ideas for Someone with Alzheimer’s post, with her seal of approval, and mailing me the sweet book Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, about a little boy who helps his elderly friend find her memory.

I’ve known for months that I needed to write a letter to my young and naive–before my mom’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis–self for Kelly’s blog. But getting the words out proved difficult.

You see, I’ve done a lot of living, learning and grieving in the last 9 years.

Before Mom’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis

Dear Lauren, age 22,

You are graduating from college, idealistic and naive, and your life is about to turn upside down. You’re about to experience real grief for the first time in your life, and the first stage is going to be denial.

Once you accept that your mom has early onset Alzheimer’s disease, you’re going to want everyone else to hurry up and get a grip, too. Be patient with them. Everyone moves through grief differently.

Read more of my “Letter to Me” at Mrs Disciple.