A Time to Laugh, A Time to Cry

My wife, Candy, who has Alzheimer’s disease, experiences several emotional swings every day. She cried the Monday after Easter when she couldn’t remember the day, week or month, or that we had participated in two online Easter worship experiences. But then when we hear from old friends and she can’t place them or where we lived when we knew them, Candy will laugh and say, “Well, there’s my Alzheimer’s again.”

She participates in a program called Mind Effects at the Lutheran Home, and there she made a painting on which she wrote from memory the words from Ecclesiastes 3. When she showed it to me she said, “See, laughing and crying each have their right time.”

On this journey, we are learning to live in the moment and celebrate the smallest joys. We are also learning to cry when life’s sadness catches up with us. Candy rarely misses a day of saying, “Every day I cry a little, and every day I laugh a little.”