The Experience of Dementia as a Journey –Author Unknown

I am going on a long journey by train. As I begin, the city skyscrapers and country landscape look familiar. As I continue my journey, the view reminds me of times gone by and I feel relaxed and comfortable. The other passengers on the train appear to be feeling the same way and I engage in pleasant conversation with them.

As the journey progresses, things begin to look different. The buildings have odd shapes and the trees don’t look quite the way I remember them. I know that they are buildings and trees, but something about them is not quite right. Maybe I’m in a different country with different architecture and plant life. It feels a bit strange, even unnerving.

I decide to ask the other passengers about the strangeness I feel, but I notice that they seem unperturbed. They are barely taking notice of the passing scenery. Maybe they have been here before. I ask some questions, but nothing seems different to them. I wonder if my mind is playing tricks on me. I decide to act as if everything looks all right, but because it does not, I have to be on my guard. This places some tension on me, but I believe I can tolerate it for the remainder of the trip. I do, however, find myself becoming so preoccupied with appearing all right that my attention is diverted from the passing scenery.

After some time, I look out the window again and this time I know that something is wrong. Everything looks strange and unfamiliar! There is no similarity to anything I can recall from the past. I must do something. I talk to the other passengers about the strangeness I feel. They look dumbfounded and when they answer, they talk in a new language. Why won’t they talk in English, I wonder? They look at me knowingly and with sympathy. I’ve got to get to the bottom of this, so I keep after them to tell me where the train is and where it is going. The only answers I get are in this strange language, and even when I talk, my words sound strange to me. Now I am truly frightened.

At this point, I figure that I have to get off this train, and find my way home. I had not bargained for this when I started. I get up to leave and bid a pleasant goodbye. I don’t get very far, though, as the other passengers stop me and take me back to my seat. It seems they want me to stay on the train whether I want to or not. I try to explain but they just talk in that strange language.

Outside the window, the scenery is getting even more frightening. Strange, inhuman-looking beings peer into the window at me. I decide to make a run for it. The other passengers are not paying much attention to me, so I slip out of my seat and quietly walk toward the back of the car. There’s a door! It is difficult to push, but I must. It begins to open and I push harder. Maybe now I will get away. Even though it looks pretty strange out there, I know I will never find my way back home if I do not get off this train. I hear the door shut. They take me back to my seat. I realize now that I will never get off this train. I will never get home.

How sad I feel. I did not say goodbye to my friends or children. As far as I know they do not know where I am. The passengers look sympathetic, but they do not know how sad I feel. Maybe if they knew they would let me off the train. I stop smiling, stop eating, stop trying to talk, and avoid looking out the window. The passengers look worried. They force me to eat. It is difficult because I am too sad to be hungry.

I have no choice now. I have to go along with the passengers because they seem to know where the journey will end. Maybe they will get me there safely. I fervently wish that I had never started out on this journey, but I know I cannot go back.

Author Unknown

Saga Sixteen

It's been three weeks since I have posted here. Note, if you just want to read our sagas, go to the right and click sagas. It really tells our story.

Speaking of our story, my husband and I now freely talk about his Alzheimer's and Vascular Dementia. In fact, we have been to two support groups (July 28 and August 8) where both the person with Alzheimer's and their spouse/caregiver are part of the discussion. Both of these have been at the Alzheimer's Association in Eloise, near Winter Haven, Florida. At the second one some of those with Alzheimer's painted; you see, folks, the economical Alzheimer's Association rents rooms with an art association. Sally and Jake were not at these sessions. August 8th they were babysitting a grandchild, and July 28th they were on a trip to the mountains.

Their trip, you think, would have satisfied Jake's yen for the South Carolina mountains and the cabin he built there and later sold. Sally and Jake rented a nearby cabin and went to the church they were used to going to when they stayed up there, but the road to the cabin that Jake build had a chain link on it and Jake was not able to see that cabin and how the new owners were doing. Somewhere in the recesses of Jake's stage-two mind he thinks that he and my husband can get up there and live without us wives. My husband knows better. At one point on their vacation he wanted to walk "home", but Sally was able to get him back to their rented cabin. They came home last Thursday. When we went to dinner the next night, Jake had trouble recalling his recent trip, the horseback riding, etc.

This afternoon Sally and I are going to our monthly Alzheimer's Association meeting in Plant City. Jake will hang out at the house with DH. This morning DH and I discussed orienting Jake in pool playing. Jake actually won a game with me once--not hard to do. I cleaned off the pool table from all my projects (currently I am teaching a counseling class) so they can play pool. Hope they do play pool while Sally and I are gone. DH, after all, gets very bored with Jake's obsessions about getting his driver's license back, and stealing away to the mountains. This is not to say that DH has no obsessions now, but I have learned to manage his obsessions.

My husband is happy and not bothered by his disability. When we go out to eat we blow the straw paper covering at each other before putting it in our cold drink. We play blue grass music and when the four of us are out, both Jake and DH sitting in the back seat of the car move to the music. DH and I sing  the song "Side By Side" in the car (I have it on my iPod).

Oh, we ain't got a barrel of money

Maybe we're ragged and funny

But we'll travel along

Singing our song

Side by Side

Don't know what's coming tomorrow. . .

Ironic. In fact, I don't know what's coming tomorrow, but live one day at a time, ever grateful that my husband and I have such good times and communication.

Saga Fifteen

Sharing the load. Today Dolores communicated with me that last night her husband didn't recognize her or where he was. Sigh! Today he is fine, however, knowing her and that they are home.

Sally and Jake. Sally said that Jake did not recognize one of his adult sons that they saw recently. Sigh! Now Jake recognizes us, and I would have thought that son from his first wife was part of his long-term memory. My friend Sally has come up with a great idea--once a month socials at our home. The four husbands will play pool on our pool table and we gals will play games. I love the idea! Socialization is so good all around. Jake doesn't drive any more due to his not passing the Alzheimer's test and we hope he is done obsessing about not driving.

Since last December, after our car crash with that DUI driver that totaled one car, my husband didn't want to drive again. We decided to not replace that car and get by with one car. When I needed him to drive the popup camper we got from Sally and Jake, however, DH started driving again in February. He really is a good driver and my husband has only driven the car when I am in it. He drives well, although needs directions from me and will get tested again in the fall.

However, this morning my husband went out BY HIMSELF to go get gas for the lawn mower. I was scared. (Maybe last year sometime he had gone out to get gas for the lawn mower and it took him three trips to remember why he went out!) Will he remember how to come back home? Will he remember how to use the debit card? He drove less than a mile and a half. I called him on his cell phone and fortunately he answered. He returned and poured the gas directly in the riding lawn mower, not remembering how to use the gas can nozzle. The front and back lawns got mowed.

June 1 to July 6. Sally, Jake, DH and I did go to six workshops co-sponsored by the local Alzheimer's Association and USF. Ann wrote about this in May on this blog.  It was in Winter Haven and Sally and I took turns driving. We wives sat in the front of the car and the husbands in the back seat on the 45 minute trip back and forth. We usually played upbeat country or oldies music for the husbands on the trip--on my iPod or with Sally's CDs. (My husband is very sensitive to Jake not being able to drive and so when the four of us are together either Sally or I dive.) At each workshop session we wrote a weekly ACTION Plan. DH and I started going to the gym again. Sally and Jake had been going to the YMCA. At that workshop we were more open about Alzheimer's. Everyone there was either an Alzheimer's patient or a caregiver. I was so proud of my husband's sharing as we sat around the table. A lot of Jake's issues were dealt with in the workshop. The four of us were also interviewed after the workshop. I got more out of the workshop than perhaps my husband did, because he wouldn't remember from week to week. I felt more empowered after the workshop.

Supplements recommended by our chiropractor. Since our December crash, we had been going to a chiropractor (I am still going for my back.) The chiropractor recommended Ribonucleic Acid and CoQ-10 supplements for my husband from. There are no studies on the use of these supplements to improve thinking for Alzheimer's patients, but I do think they have helped his thinking. DH is cheerful and uses parts of his brain to compensate. Now the short-term memory is not any better, but my husband is great. He takes two 175 mg of RNA twice a day and one 400 mg C0Q-10 with his statin medicine at night. I still cook with coconut oil when it works out. I put a link for the RNA from Standard Process Inc. under Favorites at the right.

Thanks for your prayers for Dolores, Sally and I and our husbands. 

Ten Top Caregiving Mistakes

1. Thinking you can do this on your own. You need a support group or system for YOU, the caregiver.
2. Thinking your loved one fits a pattern of another person with Alzheimer's. Everyone is different and diagnosis is tentative. My husband has Mixed Dementia, for example, and I am so fortunate at how pleasant he is.
3. Thinking you can argue with a person who has Alzheimer's. It won't work. He will obsess about an issue that is on his mind. She will want to do things from her long-term memory that maybe she can't any more--just let her try.
4. Not establishing a schedule or routine for your loved one. This morning my husband wanted me to print out that schedule, even though we are essentially staying home.
5. Not being proactive and not thinking down the road. Simplify life, have your will completed. How can you make the house safe? How can you keep items where they belong so that your loved one knows where to find it?
6. Withdrawing from your loved one emotionally. They have changed, but that doesn't mean they don't have emotions. They lose memory, but not fondness for your love. And you need their love also!
7. Stop living your life! No! Go to Disney if they can handle it at their stage. Take them along on errands as long as they can do this with you.
8. Being embarrassed by your loved one. Wink at someone when you know they are hearing a story for a second or third time.
9. Doing too much for them. There is a lot they still can do to help. My husband folds laundry I put on the pool table. He also fills up bottles of diet Lipton green tea and water. (We reuse our bottles.) He mows the lawn on a riding lawn mower and sometimes weeds.
10. Throwing your hands up in despair.  Life doesn't owe you no problems. God is there for you.

Jan's Story by Journalist Barry Petersen

Recently a caregiver gave me Jan's Story by CBS foreign correspondent Barry Petersen. Sally read the book first and clued me in that it ended differently than she expected. I wondered why she said the ending was different.

In reading Jan's Story I discovered it is really BARRY'S STORY of how he copes with his wife Jan's Early Onset Alzheimer's. Jan becomes angry, confused and has friends who aren't there. She hardly recognizes Barry at the end of the story while Barry becomes lonely and overburdened with her care.

What did I as a caregiver learn from this caregiver/correspondent? Barry chronicles the stages of Alzheimer's as Jan goes through them. He writes to family and friends in the summer of 2007:

I am taken aback at how fast Jan's short term memory seemed to evaporate . . . it robs us of sharing daily experiences, and robs her of savoring the good things that are a part of all of our daily lives . . . I am losing more than a friend . . . also slipping away is the one person who was my confidante, with whom I could and did share everything. I feel like I'm trapped in a movie, watching it unfold and already know the ending . . . but with no way to rewind back to the good parts. (pp. 53, 54)

I can identify. I noticed that when my husband prayed before we went to sleep last night that he did not pray in specifics, but he did thank the Lord for the good day we had yesterday and the good day we would have tomorrow. But the Lord is the third party in our marriage and He takes us through each day. My husband's daily humor and my daily Scripture reading such as Psalm 23 takes me through the day.

Even when I walk

through the darkest valley,

I will not be afraid,

for you are close beside me . . .

Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me

all the days of my life,

and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.

So much is familiar in Jan and Barry's story--having to order for my husband in restaurants, his misplacing things, his compensating for memory loss, sundowner's problems. Barry talked about Jan's coping experiences--ANGER, PRETENDING, SILENCE.  But my husband hasn't deteriorated as much as Jan has by the end of the book. 



While I respect Mr. Petersen and his riveting journey as a caregiver, his values do not represent my Christian values.  I did not see Mr. Petersen looking to the Lord for strength and guidance in his caregiver's story. He brings a third party (not the Lord), a new woman into the story for his loneliness. Barry seemed to find people to support his new woman while his wife is in assisted living. Even Jan's mother suggested Barry needed a side romance!

I am a caregiver who takes a different path. I have a different view of fidelity and an awesome God who is with me in this journey. Life doesn't owe me a husband. I married for the first time when I was 40 and when that husband died I was a widow for eight years. I love being married to my husband and we have so much joy in our marriage. Life doesn't guarantee a husband not get Alzheimer's. But I do have this chance to be faithful to my husband and be the best wife I can be while the Lord takes me through this.

One of my colleagues in Toastmasters cared for his wife for twenty years--so inspiring. He was the gentleman who recommended the book that I reviewed here, No Act of Love Is Ever Wasted. Mr. Petersen and I run in different circles, and I sure wish he had waited and found the strength of the Lord Jesus Christ.

When I got to the end of the book, I realized a blogger I follow had actually reviewed this book and had seen Petersen interviewed one Sunday morning. Barry's new lady is mentioned in this blog. See Early On-Set Blog Spot in January of this year which I did read. Here is how I responded:

I married for better, for worse, in sickness and in health, until death us do part.

Then the blogger herself responded with:

In his heart your husband knows he is lucky in love.

I found a Huffington Post article by Barry Petersen where he talks about guilt as he does in the book. See
Can a Marriage Die When the Wife is Alive. Here Peterson writes:

I have no answers for others, offering only what I have done and learned and chosen, knowing that it was right -- for me. I wish them luck. Like me, they will need it.

There is more than luck, Mr. Petersen. And there is God's help, grace and forgiveness for you.



 The name of the LORD is a strong fortress; the godly run to him and are safe.  Proverbs 18:10   

Facts and Figures

Compairing deaths in 2000 with deaths in 2006 people died less from heart disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer, stroke than they did from Alzheimer's Disease by 2006.  Of all those causes of death, only deaths from AD were up by 46. 1 % according to the 2010 Alzheimer's Association's report. In those years heart disease deaths went down by 11.5 % ; breast cancer by 2.6 %; prostate cancer by 8.7%; and stroke by 18.2%. I am grateful for all the advances in these diseases, but Alzheimer's has not received a cure unfortunately and Alzheimer's is increasing.

This means more caregivers.

According to the recently released 2011 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures from the Alzheimer's Association, there are now nearly 15 million Alzheimer’s and dementia caregivers in the United States. This report shows that there are far more Alzheimer’s and dementia caregivers than previously believed. These individuals provided 17 billion hours of unpaid care valued at $202.6 billion. To put this in perspective, if Alzheimer’s and dementia caregivers were the only residents of a single state, it would be the fifth largest state in the country. From Caring News

Sally, Jake, DH and I have been taking a class called "Living a Healthy Life with Chronic Conditions". I think there have been real breakthoughs as the result of this class. My husband and Jake just love joking around . Sally and I are more serious; both of us are working on FlyLady principles to organize our homes for the days/years ahead when we are the caregivers. The facilitators of this class will also follow up on the four of us.

The road we caregivers are on is uncharted. As a spouse, I don't know where this will all end. One day at a time.  Today is good. My husband is mowing the front yard.

Defining Issue of Our Age

It is June and I finally sat down to watch the May Larry King Special, "Unthinkable: The Alzheimer's Epidemic", saved on our Bright House cable box. However, this May special  wasn't there. My husband must have erased it. Did anyone see it?

I did a little research. Maria Shriver  (bless her heart--shame on Arnold)  in a promo for this video says Alzheimer's is "the defining issue of our age". She points out there is no remission and the Alzheimer's loved one becomes your child. I guess goodbye husband, hello child.

I also went online to Medscape.com and got an account there as "other health care provider"  and from that site I learned more of what was on the King special.

• Ronald Petersen, MD, director of the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer's Disease said "If we don't do something about Alzheimer's disease right now, Alzheimer's disease in and of itself may bankrupt the healthcare system. "  By 2050 the numbers are expected to hit 16,000,000! I will be 106 then. Yes I am turning 67 this month, and my husband is turning 74 in December.
• Angie Dickinson had a sister with Alzheimer's. She recommended, "Love them and I don't mean just love them with your soul and your head, but with your arms and your company and your touch and whatever pleasure still might be there for them, and don't ever let up," she said.

Angie's advice is what I can use now. Plan days with him. We started to go to the gym, but my husband didn't want to go at the end of last week. We went this morning.  He wanted to plant an orange tree and a grapefruit tree and we got those last week--fun to go shopping. He didn't have the energy to plant the trees and so Jake came over to help my husband. Jake said earlier last week that he needs someone to need him. We needed him as my back is a problem and DH doesn't have much energy.Sally and I enjoy our husband's friendship. Both Jake and DH get bored. That's why the days have to be planned even if they don't remember what happened. DH's clipboard list I typed does help him remember what is happening each day. Jake and DH may not remember events, but they remember our love.

Sally is applying FlyLady organization to her home. I need to do that also, even though my back still hurts. Company motivates me. We have company coming for dinner Wednesday night and for my birthday next weekend.  My beloved sister-in-law is coming into town! Can't wait! She is driving all day to get here without my brother whom she is dropping off somewhere to golf for his weekend.

Now the defining issue of our age for me used to be driving after drinking. Several times during the year I teach the twelve hour class for impaired drivers--the ones who have gotten their first DUI arrest. I try to get these students to never ever drive impaired again. If you follow this blog you realize that ironically we were hit by an impaired driver last December--that driver's blood alcohol content was three times the legal limit when he hit us. Our lawyer recently contacted us to say that he had no way of receiving a settlement because the driver was not insured and so the case is essentially over. I can write about what happened now, but impaired drivers is not the defining issue for me.

Daily I pour into Scripture to help me cope with my husband's disease. He is basically happy and I need to apply Angie's wisdom and the wisdom from Bob on the Alzheimer's Reading Room. Yes, my daily Scripture is what gets me through the day. This morning I read my daily Scripture from the New Living Translation of the Bible to my husband on the backyard deck. Here are highlights:

1 King 22:5 But first let’s find out what the LORD says. Acts 13:32, 33 [Paul to Jews and Gentiles at Antioch of Pisidia on his first missionary journey] And now we are here to bring you this Good News. The promise was made to our ancestors, and God has now fulfilled it for us, their descendants, by raising Jesus. . . .Brothers, listen! We are here to proclaim that through this man Jesus there is forgiveness for your sins. Everyone who believes in him is declared right with God—something the law of Moses could never do. Ps. 138:3, 7, 8  As soon as I pray, you answer me; you encourage me by giving me strength. . . . Tough I am surrounded by troubles, you will protect me from the anger of my enemies. You reach out your hand, and the power of your right hand saves me. The LORD will work out his plans for my life—for your faithful love, O LORD, endured forever. Don’t abandon me, for you made me. Prov. 17:17 A friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need.

I have several comments on that Scripture.

• Always find out what the LORD wants.
• Jesus Christ is still the defining issue of this age. Whether you or your loved one has Alzheimer's, you are declared right with God and have a home in heaven. This life is not all. See link "Two Ways to Live" on right.
• My sister-in-law coming to visit reminds me of Proverbs 17:17. I have told her that if my brother were to pass away, I would be there for her and she always is for me. I have two younger brothers, but she is the sister I never had.

What is your defining issue?
What gives you peace in the midst of your storm?

Charleston Heston, 1923-2008

Charlton's Last Interview With Wife Lydia 

ABC interviewed the couple (see U-Tube above). V ery special short interview. Charlton said in this interview,  “What can’t be cured must be endured.” Lydia Heston told how she was appalled upon hearing the news. Nancy Reagan called her and offered to talk anytime Lydia needed to talk. The interviewed said so appropriately to Heston, “The problem is not for you, but for those around you.”

At the time Charlton Heston was President of the National Rifle Association for the third term, on August 9, 2002 Heston announced he had the symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease. A year later Heston stepped down from his NRA Presidency. See here.

Now Heston was famous for these quotes:

• "This doesn’t happen when they use guns." 
• "I’ll give you my gun when you take it from my cold, dead hand."

Charles Heston did live six more years to the age of 84, having been married to wife Lydia for 64 years. He did in fact have Alzheimer’s.

An article came out the day of his announcement in Slate (The New York Times Weekender on line) that asked “Will Charlton Heston Have to Give Up His Guns?” See here. It seems that several states, including California and Oregon, have this requirement for Alzheimer’s patients.



I am not sure how the Heston family handled the gun issue, but the following solutions can work to prevent the AD loved one use guns when deluded or angry.

1. Lock up the guns.

2. Put the ammunition elsewhere.

3. Disable the gun.

Charles Heston acted in the first two epic movies I ever saw, “The Ten Commandments” and “Ben Hur”. He was always handsome with his stature, chiseled face and distinctive voice and always well-regarded. They don’t make ‘em like him anymore and certainly several other California actors have disgraced themselves in recent years.

Arnold and Mel,

        Who will be there for you like Lydia was for Charles and Nancy was for Ronnie if you get dementia? Just wondering.

                                                       Carol

Caregivers

From John 19:25-27 in the New Living Translation:

Standing near the cross were Jesus’ mother and his mother’s sister, Mary (the wife of Clopas), and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother standing there beside the disciple he loved, he said to her. “Dear woman, here is your son.” And he said to this disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from then on this disciple took her into his home.

This morning I read this from John. Jesus, on the cross, assigned the care of his mother to a beloved disciple. There you have it--caregiving in Scripture.  In my yearly journey through Scripture I may find more examples of caregiving.

Who has been assigned to us? My husband is assigned to me. One day I want to hear, "Carol, well-done, thou good and faithful servant." This means that without complaining, with thoughtful care and study, I have a charge from the LORD. It doesn't matter that there are kids and grandchildren. It doesn't matter that one day he may have to be put in the "home" if things are too hard for me at home. I am his caregiver for better for worse, until death us do part.

There is a dear lady in my acquaintance who took in a non-relative to care for her because she had no one else to be there for her and she faithfully was a caregiver until that woman passed away. Some years have gone by. Now that lady has beginning dementia. A family is there for her and I pray for her and her family.  She set the pace in this Christian family, didn't she!

Dear LORD,

Help us be the best caregivers we can be

for your glory.

Amen. 

Saga Fourteen

Without our friends, Sally and Jake, we went camping over the weekend. I forgot my digital camera, but a week later have added pictures to this post. When my husband was frustrated setting up and taking down the popup camper, my husband got angry. On the way home he apologized with his way of saying he is sorry, not remembering what he had said or done, but knowing he upset me. Actually if he didn't have a handicap, I would have been in tears; but I take the anger towards the loved one as part of the deal of being married to a husband who develops Alzheimer's.

Four of Sally and Jake's couple friends were at Highlands Hammock. We apparently need to come one more time before the group decides if they will admit us. The president said there were too few people there to vote on our membership. Things were to go downhill.

Friday night we ate out and then returned to chat at one of the camp sites. However, when we heard thunder and lightning we all headed for our own shelters. I patched a hole in the canvas with vinyl material and quilting safety pins on the outside of the popup. This worked well. Still bugs came in and bit me and I went to urgent care when we returned home.
What didn't work well was the socialization. DH told a story about an alligator crossing our back yard; this story didn't register with me and later I asked him about it and he said he must have confused it with something that happened before we were married. I have not known him to lie, but have read that false stories can develop from hallucinations of the dementia patient. He certainly wouldn't be a good juror.

DH didn’t remember much about Saturday, but just had the emotion that the group was not receptive to us.I noticed this coolness towards us from one of the four couples.  We sat across from Lucy and Paul (not their real names) when we all went out to Dairy Queen Saturday night. We were trying to connect with this couple and that is why I choose to sit near them.

Me: Lucy, do you have any hobbies?

Lucy: I don’t have any hobbies.

Then Lucy and Paul looked away to listen to the conversations at the other end of the table. My husband is very good at conversation with others and he just sat back at that point. When we got back to the campground from the Dairy Queen, he asked me to go get our chairs from the circle where we had chatted earlier in the day. We would not join their Saturday night chat. Someone said "see you tomorrow", but as it turned out we didn't see them Sunday morning--same as the other trip when we only saw Sally and Jake Sunday morning.

At our camp site that Saturday night, however, DH and I did have a good conversation about not being accepted by others.  On another matter I asked him if he remembered what he lost that morning. He couldn’t remember he had misplaced his keys. Then I asked him if he remembered the tour that we took in the afternoon. He couldn’t remember the hour and a half tram ride we took at Highlands Hammock--fabulous tour of wild life, alligators, and vegetation.  Hope the pictures of the tram ride come out and they will be posted here and preserved elsewhere to help hubby's memory. 

But, not remembering his lost keys or the tour we had just taken, DH did remember his feelings about the group.  My usually social hubby felt snubbed. Their next camping trip will be in November. I don't know what his Alzheimer's condition will be like in six months. He certainly has declined in the last six months.

It wasn't the greatest weekend, but I was glad we were able to figure out the popup without Jake and had that interesting hammock tour. Our dog enjoyed his third camping trip, however.

Monday morning, May 23,  I read about Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. We have to wash feet also and He will bless us.

John 13: 14-16  And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.