It's almost Christmas 2022.  This time last year we were in trouble.  Marjorie was in a rapid slide into dementia.  The temple had reopened after being closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Marjorie discovered that she could no longer remember the veil ceremony.  We had to be released from our temple assignment.  That was in the summer.  It was all downhill from there.  Nathan and Leslie were to arrive for a visit in August.  Marjorie asked me 19 times when they were coming.  She may have asked the question just a few minutes earlier, but she couldn't retain the information.

We went to the doctor.  He administered a test for dementia.  The test consisted of 30 questions.  Twenty six or more correct answers would mean no dementia.  Marjorie scored 22.  Most distressing to me was that she couldn't draw the face of a clock and show the time.  She scrunched all the numbers together on one side of the circle.

Marjorie lost the ability to follow a recipe, and to understand a sewing pattern.  The doctor set us up with an appointment to see a neurologist in Boise four months hence.  He said that there were medications that might slow the onset of dementia.

A couple of weeks passed.  Marjorie's mind was in free-fall.  I told the doctor that if there were medicines that might slow her decline, she needed them now, and not four months hence.  He prescribed them.

She began taking them just before Christmas.  The improvement was immediate.  The medications didn't just slow the decline, but reversed it.  I've never heard of this happening before.  We never kept the appointment with the neurologist.  Marjorie now follows recipes confidently.  She has taught herself to crochet, and is finishing the fifth baby blanket for the babies that will join our family over an eight-month period.  Four of the babies are great grandchildren.  How special is it for a baby to get a blanket made by its great grandmother?  She's also making them each a night gown.

We go to the temple on a nearly weekly basis.  Marjorie needs little or no help at the veil.

I am thrilled with the situation.  Marjorie attributes the miracle to prayer.  I attributed it to donepezil and memantine, but we're both right.  Prayer took us to the doctor and the meds.

She's fun, capable, plays the piano daily, takes wonderful care of me, and is nearly normal.

I am grateful for our miracle.

Another miracle occurred just last night.  On the night before, between 9:00 and 4:00, I had to get up six times to go to the bathroom.  That is becoming the norm.  I'll probably have to go to a urologist and consider prostate surgery.

Normally we go to bed sometime between 8:00 and 9:00, and I get up to stay at 4:00.  Last evening, though, we stayed up until after 10:00 reading the books that I've written.  They're hugely interesting and inspirational.

As I got into bed I prayed that I wouldn't have to get up every hour to go to the bathroom.  That was at 10:15.  At 4:00 I awoke.  I hadn't gotten up once!  That hasn't happened in years.

Miracles are all around us.  They occur almost daily.  I'm thrilled about this one.

Marjorie was reminiscing about the surgery on her neck when she was in the 6^th grade.  She had been sitting quietly at her desk at school when the teacher looked at her and gasped.  She rushed over to Marjorie.  Marjorie's blouse was drenched in blood.  The blood was the same temperature as she was, so she hadn't noticed.  Blood was issuing from her neck in an arc.  The teacher took her out into the hall, sent another student to get the principal, and dabbed with a kleenex at the stream of blood.  The principal came and applied pressure.  They were going to call an ambulance, but the applied pressure stopped the bleeding.  Marjorie's father came.

Numerous doctor's appointments followed.  Normally Marjorie was terrified about doctor's appointments, and would panic at the thought.  She felt no terror this time.  She was completely calm.  “It was a miracle,” she said.  She was taken to Portland where it was determined that she had a mass of hemangioma tumors wrapped around her jugular vein.  The tumors had the ability to grow right through the wall of the vein, so their removal required a very delicate operation.  Marjorie felt no panic.  She was worried about the pain that would be involved, though, so she prayed about it.  She never once experienced a bit of pain.  Another miracle.

“I did get scared once, though,” she said.  “They put an older teen-aged girl in the same room with me.  She was violent.  She screamed at her mother, and said awful things.  I mentioned it to my mother, and the next thing I knew, the girl was taken away.”

Marjorie's recovery took a long time.  When she was able to go back to school, she was told that they were just then preparing to drop her that very day.  That was over 60 years ago.  Those dangerous tumors never came back, and she has lived a normal life.  Another miracle.

I had knee replacement surgery exactly two months ago.  I'm still hobbling around.  I can walk in what looks like a normal fashion, but I have to concentrate on every step.  This recovery process is taking much longer than the hip replacement surgery that I had 18 years ago.  I love my hip, but I don't love my knee yet.  I'm told that recovery may take a year, so hopefully I'll eventually come to love this new joint.