Time is an illusion that helps things make sense

 My MIL had dementia; she was all gone, but the body remained.

Now she has passed.

Before she disappeared, but was clearly going, we had a couple of talks in front of a photo collage my SIL made. Family photos, photos of my MIL with her mom, photos of her with her family, as a child, as a young woman in a bathing suit on a beach.

And we'd go over them, identifying who each person was. And in all the older, gray haired photos, my MIL would identify the person in the photo that was her, as her mother, never herself. "No, that's not me,  that's my mother." In the younger ones, it was her story, but as a different person. She'd just make up stories. It was my job to correct her, to place her in those photos in those times in this role and that, to keep her in this time, right now.

"Time is an illusion that helps things make sense

Because we are always living in the present tense

It seems unforgiving when a good thing ends

But you and I will always be back then"

And eventually, we'd just talk about time. For her, all these things were happening all around her at the same time, simultaneously a girl, a beach babe, a mother, a grandmother. The river of time and the order we give it are eddying and swirling around her, as she drifts downstream; "Picture yourself in a boat on a river."

"If there was some amazing force outside of time to take us back to where we were
And hang each moment up like pictures on the wall
Inside a billion tiny frames so that we can see it all, all, all

Will happen, happening, happened.

But you and I will always be back then."

Song/lyrics Rebecca Sugar, all rights to her, hooray!

If you would like to read a really great graphic novel that covers this topic (or just read the original one)

https://www.qwantz.com/slaughterhouse/

(or just read the original one)

Both are very fine

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I am going into another quarter of hard coursework in accounting, and will post sewing but it will be a bit thin on the ground until this is done in April.

Also the pandemic seems to be roaring back, and I don't know what that means for my work schedule.

Take care of each other, take care of yourselves.

Be kind.