Every so often...

[Judy G. Russell]

... not very often, but every so often... I do something right.

I got an email a fews days ago from a woman asking a question about a genealogy website I maintain. Turns out she was a little confused about just where her interest and mine might intersect (turns out her husband is a very distant cousin) and she apologized for the confusion.

She explained that she's the primary caregiver for her husband who now has Alzheimer's. She told me he's had some real close calls in the last year, has spent months on life support, and has almost no interests left... except family history. Almost as an aside, she asked if I might have anything about our mutual family he might be interested in.

I got to thinking, and sent her a report, but I also sent the URL to some pictures I took a couple of years ago on a trip to the area of North Carolina where his people and mine hail from.

I just got an email back from her, at the end of his 75th birthday today:

These pictures were wonderful and Billy recognized every thing and the wheels started turning .He was like a little kid who was home again. Asking questions as if you were here Happy,happy,happy. Thanks for making his 75th, so very memorable and special. Now he asks -- is she kin to [folks who] sang bluegrass music [or those] who ran the Parkway Junction a little store on hwy221 just before you get on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Then he got tired and said "I want to see those pictures again tomorrow. I hiked all over crabtree Meadows and crabtree falls as a kid -- it is wonderful to be back home again."

I'm sitting here with a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. I am so pleased I could be part of my "new" cousin's 75th birthday... and more importantly to have been able to help give him the gift of his memories.