Strong Women

I often write of the women that have affected my life. The strong ones who touched me forever and imprinted their stories on my heart. There are others whose touch was a passing pat, who didn't know what they had meant to me. This morning though, I wrote about two women who never knew 70 years ago that they would ever affect me. They are my in-laws' mothers. These women raised sons and daughters to believe in family, honesty, and hard work. They taught them of Jesus and his sacrifice. They stressed marriage and faithfulness. And then their children met. These two people became a family and taught my husband the lessons their own mothers had taught them. And now I benefit from the lives these women lived. Today their lives are but shadows dancing on the wall. Both women suffer from Alzheimer's. They can not remember the grandchild whom I married. Seldom can they recognize the children that they raised. Yet their personalities shine through the fog of forgotten memories like sun on a damp and drizzly day. They were good women to live the lives they did and to raise their children in such a way that their great-grandchildren receive the benefits. They are still good women showing us now how to trust others and accept help graciously.