A Horrible Merciless Thief

The man in this pictures with me is Walter. He is in his early nineties. Walter was a research scientist in the horticultural department at NC State. He and his team developed a way to keep fruit, raised in North Carolina, and I suppose anywhere else, from spoiling so quickly. Because of Walter’s discovery fruit can be shipped to stores and sold so that consumers like us can enjoy delicious fruit, so I am told.

Walters speciality was blueberries. Blueberries are a very important crop in North Carolina ranking 6th in national production. Production value of North Carolina’s blueberry crop was 67 million dollars in 2016, and the production of the crop was 46 million pounds. Walter is noted for his expertise in developing blueberries that thrive and produce better crops for farmers that raise them.

I try to see Walter as often as I can. He and his wife are members at our church. He has been in a nursing home for about four years. Walter has Alzheimer’s. He has tried to tell me about raising blueberries, but as he does his mind begins to wander, and I hear about his daddy raising a garden, about his time in World War II, and many other topics far removed from his speciality he loved so much.

I love going to see Walter. He doesn’t remember who I am, but he does seem to know that I am someone who comes to see him. Walter loves to have guests. He is a very happy man. Yesterday when I went to see Walter he was not able to put words together to carry on even those wandering conversations. His wife, Ellen who is in her 80’s told me that the only time he is able to put words into sentences is when he offers thanks for his lunch. She thinks God is giving him the ability to do that because of the love he has always demonstrated for his Savior. I liked to hear Walter offer thanks although his prayers were lengthy and sometimes wandered like some of the talks I had with him. I missed yesterday’s pray because lunch was a little earlier. I hope I get to hear him pray again.

Walters best friend at the nursing home, Bob, died recently. Bob also had Alzheimer’s. His disease was much more advanced than Walters. I never heard him say a word. His wife had to feed him. He just sat with a pitiful blank look on his face. Bob held several patients with IBM. One of the things he did, in the early days, was to come up with the touch screen for the technology we use today. The last couple of times I saw Bob, for some reason, he looked at me and smiled the biggest smile. His wife was tickled. I don’t know why, maybe he thought I looked funny. I was saddened yesterday when I found out that Bob had died. I am sad to watch Walter decline. It won’t be long before he will not be able to communicate at all.

I am remembering two brilliant me who have had their minds tragically stolen by a horrible disease. It is so sad for anyone to have their lives end this way.