From behind the window--by all appearances

Dad was in my dream again. This time, I could see him through the window as I approached my house. He was wearing the blue puffy winter coat and "old man" cap that he wore so often in the early stages of the illness. He also wore a faint but pleasant smile on his lips. I had been looking for him--he wasn't where he was supposed to be, so I walked back to the house to look for him. He had been trying to open the door to come outside to follow us, but his feeble hands and disabled mind couldn't quite work the doorknob.

So even though it didn't appear like it at first glance, he was trapped. He couldn't get out and he couldn't communicate his need for assistance. He just had to wait for someone to return to help him. He could only observe the outside world from behind the window.

While there were many real life incidences similar to this one (even though we're long past that now), this snippet pictures this wretched disease as a whole. It serves a reminder to me to love the helpless, as Jesus did. And not just those with Alzheimer's; helplessness comes in many different forms, sometimes appearing from the outside that all is well.