A visit with cousin Sarah

Your scrapbook editor trekked to not-very-far-away Richfield last week to visit cousin Sarah Broberg in her group home, where she is well-loved by her friendly housemates and well-cared-for by some kind and capable folks. As most of you know, Sarah is in the early stages of Alzheimer's, so your scrapbook editor wanted to see how she was doing and if she still remembered very important family lore, such as, for instance, who her favorite cousin might be.

She did! She did remember the most important family item of that evening -- your scrapbook editor! She sang out, "PAM!" when I entered the living room where she and her housemates were watching a reality show, and never has my name sounded so sweet! We popped open the 12-pack of Diet Coke I'd brought and partied down with her housemates and evening caretaker, Moses, a fine fellow. Many burps were exchanged. Then I showed her some family photos. She remembered most of you, especially, it probably goes without saying, ChrisMiller!ChrisMiller!, whose photo elicited the most delighted table-pounding. There were poignant moments too, as when Sarah's eyes welled with tears when I showed her photos of her late parents, Marion and Wally Broberg. She showed them to her housemates, saying over and over again, "My mom and dad. They passed away. That's my mom and dad. They died. They passed away." Her housemates rushed to comfort her, and in a lame attempt to do so myself, I told Sarah she has a little of them inside her, which caused her to stick her finger in her ear, perhaps searching for them. Why not? The ear is close to the brain, that store of memory, and the heart.

As this photo fails to show, Sarah smiled a lot upon opening the birthday gift that your scrapblog editor went all-out on -- two precious five-dollar bills! Five whole dollars! Bills! American money! Two of them! I asked Sarah what she was going to spend them on, and she said, very politely, "None of your bizness." "How about gifts for your cousins?" I suggested, which prompted the look above. Even ChrisMiller!ChrisMiller! is not going to get one red cent of those precious greenbacks. You'd better believe it, buddy.