Download - The Perfect Wisdom Web

Be Not Afraid Caringchildren. In fact, he saved his last smile for a baby aneighbor brought by.Like Bernard, my mother-in-law, Margrit, wascompletely incapacitated by the time she died: shesuffered from Lou Gehrig’s disease for the last thirteenyears of her life; for eight of those she was basicallybedridden.Blessed with eleven children, and more than sixtygrandchildren, Margrit was a tireless worker who hada knack for getting things done. She was a talentedwoman too, as was obvious to anyone who heard herdirect a choir or lead an orchestra (she had studiedthe violin at a prestigious European conservatory).Still, when I think of her, I think of the German saying,“quiet waters run deep.” In contrast to her husband,an animated talker, she was so unassuming that whenasked for her opinion on something, she was knownto smile and say only, “I’m listening.” But it was notbecause she was timid. In fact, there was a confidenceand sureness about her that spoke louder than words.To me, Margrit’s last years highlight the significanceof caring for the elderly, and not just in the sense ofhelping or nursing them, but in learning to be attentiveto the gifts they give back. While another musicianmight have lamented the erosion of her skills, she didnot; on the contrary, she meekly accepted her limits.Eventually she became so frail that she could speak164