SAND ANGELS

I just got off the phone with Peggy.

It is difficult to relax on this vacation because she is always on my mind.

Her voice was small and soft today. Almost like a little child who was very shy and not sure who she was talking with or what she should say.

I was a stranger to Peggy this morning. A stranger to my sister...My friend.

 She doesn't remember me but...I remember her.

I was walking on the beach yesterday and thought of the many times that we spent together at the beach.

I thought of the first thing that we would do when we got the beach.  We would fall back in the sand to make sand angels. Leaving a print of ourselves in the sand for other beach walkers to see. Then, we would check every day to see if we were still angels in the sand. Little by little the waves would wash the sand clean and our imprints would be gone. The one whose imprint lasted the longest got to be an angel for a day and do anything that they wanted to do. The fallen, washed away angel had to go along.

Funny how those memories floated through my mind. I haven't thought about the sand angels in years.

So, here I am... a grown woman, walking on a beach in Santa Barbara. In front of people who probably thought that I was crazy, I fell back in the sand and made a sand angel for Peggy. I put her initials at the wing tip just like we used to do.

I made Peggy's angel print and sat looking at it... wondering how long it would last. It was a silly little tribute to her but important for me to do.

I watched as the ocean became Alzheimer's disease and within minutes a wave came and washed Peggy's angel away leaving no sign that she was ever a sand angel on a beach in Santa Barbara.

But.....

I know that she was there. 

 Alzheimer's may be washing her away with huge waves but my memories of her and our sand angels will stay with me forever.

I Love You Today, Peggy!

Mary Louise