Today we celebrated Christmas with my family, and we had a nice, quiet day at home to reflect and spend time together. I worked on my SeattleScience.com website, and we visited my grandmother.

Grandma has Alzheimer’s Disease, and can no longer speak or understand much. She still walks around, almost constantly. It’s good because she gets exercise, and there’s another resident, a very tall man named J.T., who also walks. Hand in hand, they shuffle around the nursing home hallways. They do not speak, but they support each other in ways that no one else could - suffering through the same horrible disease that eats at their minds, hanging on to what health they have by pacing the halls.

I can never say that we get much out of visiting grandma, because she never remembers us, and she never says anything coherent. But perhaps “getting something out of it” is not the point of visiting grandma. There is something strangely spiritual about visiting the infirm, the sick, those who are unable to give anything in return. It is not something I do often - seeing grandma twice a year when I visit my family is about it. I need to do this more.

Dan at Signposts also has a grandma post.