THE PORCH: WHAT REMAINS
Twenty years ago, my daughter entered a contest about Alzheimer’s.
She was in the second grade.
Too young to fully understand
what it means to lose memory…
to watch someone slowly forget.
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But when asked to draw something…
She didn’t draw loss.
She drew herself and her grandmother…
walking to church.
Side by side.
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Out of everything she could have shown…
She chose:
Togetherness.
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She won second place.
And at the time,
it was just a moment.
A drawing.
A ribbon.
A memory tucked away.
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But now…
twenty years later…
That drawing feels different.
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Because life has a way of bringing meaning
back to the things we didn’t fully understand.
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Alzheimer’s doesn’t just take memory.
It changes how we hold on.
How we show up.
How we love.
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And yet…
when I look at that picture…
I don’t see what’s lost.
I see what remains.
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Presence.
Connection.
Love that doesn’t depend on remembering every detail.
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Because even now…
In ways that can’t always be explained…
She is still walking with her.
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Closing:
Maybe that’s what my daughter understood before we did:
Even when memory fades…
love finds a way to stay.
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