Read Online Remember by Karen Kingsbury - Free Book Online Page B

devotions at least once a week since then.
    And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
    They were words she had heard all her life, but they had seemed empty and trite after Tim’s murder. What good could come from losing her husband-and just months after the two of them had survived the greatest test of their marriage? What good was there in watching a little girl grow up without her father?
    As hard as the past five months had been, she had recovered at least enough to believe that things would get better. Somehow … someday. What was it her mother had said? Beauty from ashes. Yes, that was it. God would honor the truths laid out in the Bible, truths that Kari believed completely, even if they didn’t seem to make sense. But still, her belief didn’t ease the pain of daily living, the uncertainty of what tomorrow held.
    No, she didn’t struggle with whether God would deliver on his promise to make something beautiful out of the shattered remains of her life.
    She struggled with when.
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    Ashley was*never nervous.
    But as she made her way through the hospital lobby and up the elevator to the third floor, she could barely keep her hands from shaking. It was time to talk to Landon, time to find out what was eating at him and why weeds of tension had shot up between them these past few days. Time to find out if what she guessed was true.
    The dinner party at her parents’ house had been hard to leave. Conversations about Erin’s move had blended into talk about Luke and Reagan, which had led to more discussion about the blood bank at St. Anne’s Hospital. Apparently it was lower than it had been in a decade, and Brooke, the oldest of the five of them, was willing to take up the cause.
    Ashley leaned hard against the elevator wall. Of course Brooke was willing. She was a doctor, after all-she and Peter both. By spearheading a blood drive, they would make the mighty John Baxter happy. They would be in tight, following in his footsteps, deserving his praise. Even if they didn’t go to church or believe in God.
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    Normally at a family gathering, Ashley would have been anxious to leave. But tonight she had taken it all in, studying the people who made up her family, wondering why she didn’t fit in, why she wasn’t like them. Before she left, the conversation had turned to Alzheimer’s. She told them Lu’s advice about keeping the patients in the here and now.
    But Brooke had disagreed. “That works sometimes, but doctors today are talking more about distraction. That’s the preferred treatment now.”
    “Distraction?” Ashley had been ready to leave, but if Brooke knew something that could help her at work, she was interested.
    “Yes.” Brooke nodded, then added in her official doctor voice, “The moment an Alzheimer’s patient veers off the course of reasonable normalcy, distract them.
    Change the subject, introduce an idea or an activity, anything to deter them from their delusion.”
    The idea sounded better than arguing with the old folks. “Why can’t I just agree with them, let them think their husbands are alive or that they’re visiting for a few hours instead of confined to a home for sick people?”
    “That would.never work.” Brooke’s laugh made Ashley feel stupid. “It’d be like pouring gasoline on the flames of dementia.”
    The memory faded, and Ashley crossed her arms.
    If anyone should be leaving town, she should. Certainly no one would be broken up about that the way they were by Erin and Sam’s leaving. That was something else. Ashley had actually felt sad at her sister’s announcement. She would miss seeing Erin once a week at the family dinners. Erin had always been the quietest Baxter, the simplest and the plainest. But Erin was genuine as a summer sunset, her smile enough to light the room. Ashley had visited her kindergarten classroom a few times and been amazed at the handmade decorations