Accompanied

(As the news of the pandemic and its effects grew more dire, I became hesitant about sharing anything but the most positive parts of our journey with Alzheimer’s. In no way do I want to add to the distress felt by so many. However, I know there are many others still walking this same path with us. And there are now countless others suffering in new and shocking ways. I decided to share the following short piece, “Accompanied,” which is drawn from a 2015 journal entry. I post it today—on Good Friday amid a pandemic—with my fervent hope and prayer that all who walk in darkness sense in whatever ways are most meaningful to them that they are not alone.)

Images of darkness surround me.
I see gaping holes…
deep craters…
where  
light-filled neurons once carried
memories…abilities…capacities.
Now darkened. Destroyed.
Eaten away by disease.
Gone.

Crying, weeping…
I am standing in these places
where life once was…
where light had been…
now
new tombs…
barren and dark.

Suddenly the Holy One is beside me,
doubled over with grief, weeping with me.
I am not alone.

⁷ Where can I go from your spirit?
    Or where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
    if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
⁹ If I take the wings of the morning
    and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
    and the light around me become night,”
¹² even the darkness is not dark to you;
    the night is as bright as the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

                                Psalm 139: 7 – 12, NRSV