Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Spring 2014 | Page 46
I
PUBLISHEDalumni
Great Hope
This author learned to tell the story of hope
in the midst of deep loss.
Jennifer Labadie
by Jennifer Labadie Fromke ’92
Fromke ’92 writes
from North Carolina,
where she lives with
i
crowded into the dim, private room
with Dad and Nana. Under a thin
blanket, Poppa looked so small. My
mind thundered back to the days
when I struggled to keep up with
him on a long hike. When we ran the
horses at the end of a trail ride.
When he water-skied at the age of
seventy-two.
Dad woke him. “Dad. You have a
visitor.”
Slow to sit up, he sat on the edge of
the bed, rubbed his face, stared at the
floor. His white hair stood up in the
back until Nana smoothed it down.
“Dad? Would you like to move to the
chair? Jenny’s here to visit.”
“Who’s that?”
My heart sank.
“Jenny. You remember.”
His big blue eyes, a matching pair to
my dad’s and my daughter’s, staggered
their way to my face. “Jenny.”
His familiar voice echoed in my
ears, but I longed to hear him call me
“Chum.” Did he remember he called
all of his grandchildren by that name?
Did he remember us at all?
My throat ached. I blinked away tears.
Through the planning and travel and
arranging for this meeting, I’d been
so anxious to see my grandfather, I’d
skipped over the reason for my visit.
My last visit with him before . . .
I swallowed hard again.
W H EATON .EDU / M A G A Z I N E
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her husband, Jon
Fromke ’92, and
three teenagers.
Her debut novel,
A Familiar Shore, was
released in 2013.
She has published
several short stories
over the last
two years, and is
now working on her
second novel.
...
“Hey, Poppa.”
My family has walked the Alzheimer’s/
dementia road with two of my
grandparents, as well as with other
extended family members. We hope
this will be the extent of our experience
with this disease. Whenever the word
Alzheimer’s is spoken, it’s typical for
a dark cloud to fill the room and for
people to become very solemn, because
with a diagnosis like that, there’s no
obvious hope for fixing the situation.
As I began to research the novel I’m
currently writing, I heard a woman
speak on the topic of Alzheimer’s, and
how a caregiver can survive the ordeal.
She spoke from personal, painful
experience.
“But there’s a sweetness in every stage,
if you look for it.”
Her words soaked into my soul, and I
knew I’d found the theme for my story.
I loved the hopefulness she exuded.
She took a realistic view of her mom,
who no longer recognized her, and she
also took delight in discovering new
things about her, even as she descended
further into the disease. She looked at
how God used her mom in the lives of
people around her, despite her illness.
Even in the middle of the dark road
that is Alzheimer’s, God places blessings
along the way. Tiny glimmers of hope
catch the eye, like light glinting off
broken glass. They may not change the
course of a patient’s life, but they prickle
with potential for changing the life of
someone who knows them. I’ve seen it
in my own experience. I’ve heard about
it from others. I’m so grateful for God’s
placement of hope in this dark world.
I find myself writing about it. Writing
with great hope.
WHEATON
3/19/14 8:28 PM