My friend Kathy attends the same church as my brother and his wife–and where my parents go.

Last Sunday, the congregation prayed for Kathy and her husband, Jim, and sixteen-year-old son, Jack, because they’re going to Africa on a two-week mission trip. Starting today!

Yesterday, zooming around town on last-minute errands, Kathy called to tell me that when the minister asked people to come up and lay hands on them for prayer, my dad went right up and held Jim’s hand.

Touching!

Even as my dad’s vocabulary and capabilities and awareness are disappearing, there is a part of him–his soul, perhaps?–that remains safe from Alzheimer’s.