Sharing a Moment in Time-Day 37

While sharing in my sister-in-law's care the week before Christmas, she expressed a wish for me to find a very special book on her shelf one morning so she could "introduce" me to her grandparents.  This book was actually a beautiful collection of recipes from an inn in Colorado, where her grandparents spent many summers.  Hand over hand, we jointly held the book so that it would not slip to the floor, and together ooo'd and ahhh'd over the mouth-watering recipes with photos.  When we turned to the page featuring Nicolette's family, she beamed and touched their glossy pictures with her fingertips as if somehow she was drawn closer to them through the colored ink on the page.  Along with the pictures were several paragraphs describing the highlights of their lives and summers spent at the inn.  My sister-in-law's interest in reading the text to me immediately peaked, but knowing she had not been able to read for several months because of her brain tumors, I quickly offered to read it aloud for both of us to enjoy.  With courage and determination, she emphatically shook her head and declared that she would read it by herself.  For the next few breath-taking moments, my brother and I watched and listened intently as she carefully began to decode each word with a little assistance from me, until she had painstakingly completed one paragraph for us.  With joyful pleasure, Nicolette smiled at her husband, my brother Michael, and whispered with exhausted breaths "I did it!"  A moment of tears...a moment in time...a moment to treasure!