Page 66 - Senior Link Magazine Spring 2019- Online Magazine

HONORING SENIORS
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Senior Senior Gertrude Johnson

Just Me,

Her and the

Moon

by Meghan Mitchell

I advanced dementia. This group
remember the first time I really
supported each other through some
saw a full moon. I was three
years old; we had just moved to
they were also able to find laughter
Lubbock, and my grandma rushed me of the darkest days of their lives, yet
outside. I tried to ask her questions, together. I think the reason the “Forget
but she just took me into the middle of Me Nots” were so full of life was
the backyard and told me to look up. I because they were all feeling loss; the
remember watching her gaze lovingly group was like a therapy group, with
at the moonlight; every time I see a good food and even better music. I
full moon, I think of her. had the pleasure of joining Muga on
many of the group’s adventures, and
Muga was always fascinated with through watching their interactions,
the moon. Anytime there was a full I gained a new appreciation for close
moon, we would sit in the backyard friends. Muga treated her friends as if
and just stare. It was one of those they were family, and I strive to do the
traditions that happen wordlessly. The same.
moon is often visible in Lubbock, and
there was something about the full Even if the moon was not fully visible,
moon that always transformed her. Muga would go outside with a book,
Sitting wordlessly in the backyard, she usually Tom Clancy or Dick Francis,
looked so much at peace, as if nothing and wait until she could see the moon.
could faze her. I took note of the books she grabbed the light of the moon where I learned
before she went outside into the warm how to read. We would go over the
Through our little tradition, Muga night, and I would take a similar book same sentence repeatedly, until I
taught me how to cherish the little and sit patiently by her leg. I look back could recognize the words and read it
things. Throughout her life, she was on this and laugh; I could not read, to her. We spent months reading the
enamored by classical music, the but I took the book outside because, story of “the boy who lived,” and then
sunset and her loved ones. Every if it made Muga happy, it had to when we finished, we moved on to
Tuesday and Saturday, she went out make me happy, too. Muga noticed the next book in the series. Even at a
to lunch with her group of friends. my imitation and bought me my first young age, she taught me how to read
The group called themselves the actual book: Harry Potter and the not just for plot but also for details;
“Forget Me Nots”. Members of the Sorcerer’s Stone. It was outside under this is a skill I am so grateful for now.
group were spouses of those with

66 Lubbock Senior Link