Lucy, You Got Some 'Splainin' To Do!

HELLO AGAIN GENTLE READERS,

It used to be thought that the insane were closer to God than the rest of us. Maybe its so, I don't know. Most families, including mine, have at one time or another been touched by the tragedy of Alzheimers or Dementia. We're living longer, eating God knows what chemicals, breathing air you could snort through a ten-dollar bill and racing through life like the last turn at the Daytona 500. I'm not a doctor or research scientist so, I don't have a clue as to their causes but, these things can't help.

Once you've had a turn at caring for someone so afflicted, you can't but help but develop a sort of dark humor about it. Your own sanity may depend upon it. I fondly remember my great-uncle Callie (James Calvary Vickers). A most gentle soul he was. The Mother Teresa of the Clan Vickers. Callie lost a great deal of his hearing in France during WWI when an shell exploded over his head. This loss of hearing was not the handicap that you might imagine it to be, being married to aunt Sue and all. I can still hear auntie Sue starting in on one of her tirades and see Callie easing his hand to the volume control of his hearing aid. In his mid-ninties, Callie also lost his sight. Yikes! Total aural and visual deprivation. Callie lost his mind.

He lived with my mom and dad and this event happened when they took a weekend trip. I had come over for the weekend to take care of Callie and was ill-prepared for it. Callie was a lumber grader by trade and when his mind went the way of the Dodo, he started "grading" every stick of furniture in the house. Hard to do just by the sense of touch but, we humans, even thusly afflicted, are nothing if not creative. I called his doctor and he opened up his office on a Saturday for his old friend Callie. He said nothing could be done and we would have to arrange for his long term care.

I packed a picnic lunch and Callie and I spent the rest of that afternoon at the Danville Lumber Company "grading" wood. The owners didn't seem to mind us being there. Nice folks. A little pricey but, nice.

I don't pretend to know the mind of God. I have no idea why bad things happen to good people. I don't want to sound "Zen" but, maybe even God can't create a one-sided coin. In spite of this, God has no 'splainin' to do. He left his fingerprints all over a good man-my uncle Callie.

Tom Vickers