My mother had always enjoyed reading, when I would ask if I could read to her, she would usually say "yes". She would tell me how she used to love to read, but that she "just couldn't see how to anymore". My sister had subscribed to a large-print Guideposts for her, thinking maybe she could still read, but once when I asked her to try to read, all she could make out were the articles, A, an, or the, and only when they were the extra large-print in titles.
I read to her from Reader's Digest and Guideposts, and sometimes the stories would make both of us cry. Sometimes she thought the people in the story were actually there, or that I was reading a letter from someone to her, or even that I was telling her a story about myself. I also read to her from Country, Country Extra, Reminisce, and Birds and Blooms all published by Reiman Publications (P.O. Box 991, Greendale, WI 53129-0991). Even after she could no longer follow a story, she enjoyed the beautiful pictures in these magazines. Birds and Blooms even has a "Ready for a Walk?" section, so we could pretend we were walking outside and seeing flowers, birds, and butterflies even when the weather wouldn't permit our real walk.
I read several children's books to my mother, too. All the Places to Love by Patricia MacLachlan (HarperCollins, 1994) was a picture book about living in the country and the love of family, and she enjoyed this, as she did Home Place by Crescent Dragonwagon (Macmillan, 1993). I read some from a book about Laura Ingalls Wilder, too, and she enjoyed it for a while. I think she might have enjoyed me reading from the actual Little House books, because she always enjoyed the series so.
It didn't take me long to learn that we could no longer watch the evening news or any of the murder mysteries my mother used to enjoy. My sister taped all of the Little House on the Prairie series for us and she kept an eye out for every movie that might be suitable. My niece taped all of The Waltons which my mother especially enjoyed, because the Depression years were the ones she could remember. Every time I went shopping, I'd buy more movies, and I ordered everything I could find that I thought she would like. I collected practically all of the Shirley Temple movies, and my mother said she enjoyed seeing "that little girl who likes to sing and dance." Shirley Temple was her favorite child star, and Jessica Tandy was her favorite older star; She enjoyed Driving Miss Daisy and Fried Green Tomatoes.
