A sweet moment with Sue and Louella

by Rod Williams - I experienced the sweetest thing yesterday and wanted to share it with readers of

Sue Deuss and Louella Ballenger

this blog.  Those of you who know me, know of my situation with my wife Louella. Louella has brain damage and is "total care." She has to be fed, bathed, changed -everything. She is in a wheelchair and she cannot talk. She has been sick since about 2001 but she gradually declined and has been in her current state about four years.

We have a wonderful caregiver, named Sue, who has taken care of Louella for the past nine years. Sue took a vacation and was gone about two and half weeks, returning to work yesterday.

Luckily I had a good caregiver from an agency take care of Louella in Sue's absence. That is not always the case. So, I was fortunate this time. Also, I have found another good person who helped out on weekends and some other times when we did not have the agency. So, I had a good team to take care of Louella while Sue was gone.

With Louella's condition it is hard to know how much Louella knows. I wondered if she missed Sue. With her advanced brain damage I wondered if Louella would forget her or if Louella even knows one person from the other or if she even realized Sue was not there. On Wednesday, Sue returned to work. When Sue was getting Louella up, Louella's face just lit up when she realized it was Sue. Then sitting on the edge of the bed Louella leaned over and kissed Sue, Then, did it two more times. And "spoke" in cooing tones with soft inflection. Then she leaned her head on Sue's chest and let Sue stoke her for some times.

It was so sweet to see Louella express her love for Sue. Louella's mind might be gone, but there is still a person there with feeling and a capacity for love. It was a blessing.

Top Stories