The Best Birthday Gift

She doesn't usually know who I am anymore. Or, at least, she doesn't appear to know me. She doesn't even recognize her own home and often wants to leave so she can "go home" when she's tired and wants to go to bed. She even walked out of her house, down the street and around the corner, with the TV remote in her hand, escaping from her very frightened caretaker, only to be found a few minutes later by some very kind neighbors and my sister...

But she's always happy anyway and loves visitors. So I went to see her on my birthday last month. We sat on the love seat in her living room and she was just looking at me with a kind of blank look in her eye. Staring.

Then, suddenly, an awareness came across her face. She looked at me as if she hadn't seen me in a very long time. "You're my daughter!!" she said. "You're my daughter!!" over and over and over. So excited her hands were shaking! "Yes, I am." was all I could say. She hugged me, telling me that I was her daughter. So happy to see me. It was my birthday and my mother knew who I was!

The best birthday gift ever...