Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Happy tears...

Most of you that know me know that my mom is blind as a bat. I don't like to admit how bad it is and I usually don't have to. Mom has figured out how to do almost everything. She has continued scrapbooking which surprises most people. We have to do a lot of preplanning but she creates beautiful pages.
I should have known that scrapping was getting tough when she thought a statue of a man on a horse was one of her grandchildren. Needless to say we made a joke about it and have laughed numerous occasions about the John Wayne picture... But it made me realize that she really couldn't see the pictures. She knows what they are because they were in the album together. I haven't ever talked about how sad that made me. Pictures are her life. The one thing she has always loved and treasured.
Mom started losing her sight around the time that I got married. That was over three years ago. Tonight I came to the realization that mom hasn't really seen a picture of her grandchildren in over three years. This is the same woman that has 108 8x10s in her living room. I hate to mention that she can't see any of them without taking them off the wall and using a magnifying glass.
So... Wade and I went over to Mom and George's for dinner. Mom and I love Survivor and it is so much more fun when we watch it together. Anyways... Before Survivor started we were showing Mom how I could hook my laptop up to their tv and use it as a monitor. I thought it was cool but I didn't realize how much it would change her life. I started by showing her her beloved Farmville and we played for awhile. Then I upped the ante. I logged into her SnapFish account. I opened up the album from one of James' baseball games and she could tell me about every single one of them. The happy tears came when I opened the pictures from OAP and for the first time in over three years she could truly see a picture of my brother and his family. Here she is looking at that photo (I don't think she knows I took this picture)





It took awhile for her to realize that she could do ANYTHING she used to do. Including: checking her email, Facebook and reading blogs.
She loves all things Stampin' Up! and stampshacklady.blogspot.com was the first one she wanted to visit. This was the first time she could do more than look at the pictures.






Well... Since I am still crying happy tears I should probably stop sitting in this parking lot and go home.

Much love and happy tears to all...

4 comments:

heartlandfamily said...

Aww! I'm so glad she can do this! Love here and you and miss you both!!!

Dana said...

That is wonderful!!!! Can't wait to see y'all again!

TXStampin' Sharon said...

How special your story was about your mom. Thank you for sharing your HAPPY TEARS!

Unknown said...

Very touching!